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ASEAN members to participate in E.



[NOTE FROM DAVID ARNOTT: NOW, WHO WILL IT BE?]


ASEAN members to participate in E. Timor transition 

Kyodo. Manila, 25 November 1999. Seven of the 10 member countries 
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will send contingents 
to the United Nations-led transition administration in East Timor, 
Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said Thursday. 

Siazon told a press conference he and his ASEAN colleagues 
discussed over dinner ASEAN participation in the U.N. Transition 
Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and seven of members
committed to a 'physical presence' in the next phase of East 
Timor's transition to independence. 

Siazon did not delineate which of the 10 ASEAN countries -- 
Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, 
Laos, Singapore, Cambodia and Myanmar -- will participate, but
Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia are already known to be 
committed. 

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was invaded by Indonesia 
in 1975 and annexed as a province in 1976. It obtained de-facto 
independence from Jakarta after the Indonesian parliament ratified 
an Aug. 30 referendum in which the vast majority of East Timorese 
chose independence rather than limited autonomy within Indonesia. 

The referendum was followed by a rampage of killing, burning and 
looting by pro-Indonesia militia, which prompted the international 
community to send in an international force of peacekeepers. 

The next phase of international involvement will focus on helping 
East Timor reach full independence. 


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