FED: UN should send troops to East Timor Beazley

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-1999
FED: UN should send troops to East Timor Beazley

BRISBANE, April 19 AAP - Australia should call on the United Nations to send troops into
East Timor to disarm the militia and restore peace in Indonesia, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
said today.

Mr Beazley said Australian inaction on reports of massacres and unrest in Indonesia meant
the government was not being a "good friend" to the nation's Asian neighbour.

"The time has come not to mince words with President Habibie and the Indonesian military,"
he told reporters at Queensland University of Technology's Carseldine campus.

"It is (time to) say 'you armed these militia, disarm them now and create some conditions
of stability'."

Mr Beazley said it was public knowledge that the Indonesian military had supplied weapons
to the militia, and the Australian government had to apply pressure to the Indonesian
government to see those weapons confiscated.

"The time is also long since past where we ought to be going to the United Nations and
using every element of the United Nations to put pressure on Indonesia," he said.

"We have got to get an outcome which produces a decent human rights and lifesaving outcome
from the people of East Timor."

Mr Beazley said Indonesia's international reputation was suffering as a result of the
continued conflict in East Timor.

AAP bja/was

KEYWORD: TIMOR BEAZLEY

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