As pro-Indonesian militia terror continued in East Timor yesterday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, appealed to the Indonesian President to ensure that his police co-operate with the United Nations mission (UNAMET).
Speaking after meetings with President B.J. Habibie and Mr Xanana Gusmao, the Timorese guerrilla leader who may become president of "Timor Lorosae" following Monday's referendum, the EU's Special Envoy on East Timor stopped short of calling for UN peacekeepers. Mr Andrews seemed careful not to inflame Indonesian sensitivity to outside intervention in the delicate atmosphere of domestic politics.
Mr Andrews said, however, that if police co-operation with the UN weakened, "there is no doubt the Security Council will have to take a new look at it". Mr Habibie had "seemed positive" on the point of police co-operation, Mr Andrews said outside the bungalow where Mr Gusmao is sequestered under house arrest.
Referring to yesterday's events at the UNAMET compound in Dili, to militia checkpoints in the capital and to a siege of militias at the Western Timorese town of Hera, the Minister said the rising tension seemed "to give the lie" to continuing police co-operation with UNAMET. It was "terribly important to keep Monday's co-operation going". But he had thanked President Habibie for having the consultation process.
The Minister, who led an EU observer delegation of some 90 MEPs to East Timor for Monday's ballot, said he explained to Mr Habibie "the reason for being here and what we saw and heard, and I pay tribute to the people of East Timor despite the immense intimidation during the referendum process". He also praised the work of UNAMET.
Mr Andrews said he did not wish to anticipate developments in advance of the referendum result, which is expected before next Monday.
He said the co-operation of the police was particularly important in the interim period between the announcement of the result and a decision on it by the Indonesian parliament in November.
The Minister's third meeting with Mr Gusmao, who is expected to be released later this month, lasted 35 minutes.
Mr Andrews's party included Ireland's Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Brendan Lyons, and Mr Richard Townsend, head of political affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, Mr Gusmao has outlined the shape of the probable state of Timor Lorosae, which means East Timor in Tetun, the language spoken there.
It will have "a market economy with selective intervention of the state to ensure equity, transparency and efficiency".
A far cry from the 1975 socialist aspirations of a briefly independent East Timor, before Indonesia's brutal invasion, the new state will facilitate "special economic zones" and develop offshore banking in a "modern financial hub". Banking secrecy will be protected by law, Mr Gusmao said in a message to the Timorese people.
It offers a "general amnesty for all political crimes committed until now. The decision is taken after careful consideration," said Mr Gusmao. That decision may not please everyone in Mr Gusmao's National Council for Timorese Resistance.
"This act of generosity transcends our emotions, heals wounds and elevates the soul of our people," who have lost an estimated 200,000 people during the Indonesian occupation. The new state will seek to "overcome differences and bury hatred".