An agreement yesterday between Indonesia and Portugal to talk more about "special status, based on a wide-ranging autonomy" for occupied East Timor is a long awaited diplomatic breakthrough.
But initial Timorese reaction was united in seeing autonomy as only a stage on the road to independence from the former Portuguese territory's current colonial master, Indonesia. Although the countries' foreign ministers agreed to involve the East Timorese people more in the process, no invitation to sit in on the talks was issued, resistance sources noted sourly.
The resistance said the deal would go nowhere unless the imprisoned guerrilla leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, was freed to negotiate and the people were consulted.
Apart from an agreed hope to complete an accord by the end of the year, the only other substantive result of UN-mediated talks in New York was to open `interest sections' in each other's capitals, as in the case of the US and Cuba.
Agreement on the proposal of Indonesia's new civilian president, Mr J.B. Habibie, was enabled by setting aside previous preconditions. Indonesia agreed not to seek recognition of its (illegal) sovereignty and Portugal agreed not to insist on consulting the people in a referendum. In the event, the style of diplomacy has followed the classical pattern of an understanding between 19th century nation-states.
Indonesia's wish to remove its "pebble in the shoe", as its Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, once described the issue, has been hardened by the departure of President Suharto, a former general in power during the 1975 invasion.
Meanwhile, the Timorese Nobel laureate, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, vice-president of the National Council for the Timorese Resistance, said freedom for Mr Gusmao was the message he would take to a meeting with the UN leader, Mr Kofi Annan, in Lisbon this weekend.
Dismissing as unrealistic a hope of an accord by the end of this year, Dr Horta said autonomy would require full withdrawal of Indonesian troops, UN human rights monitors in place and a guaranteed commitment to an eventual referendum.
Dr Horta said he was not willing to act any longer as Mr Gusmao's proxy. Although Indonesia said yesterday that it would free more political prisoners soon, it excluded Mr Gusmao from this.
Mr Joao Carrascalao, leader of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), one of the largest resistance groups, said that the deal was unacceptable because it was tantamount to recognising Jakarta's sovereignty.