DILI, April 8: Indonesia and East Timor on Friday signed a historic border agreement, removing one of the last obstacles to reconciliation between Jakarta and the territory it occupied for almost quarter of a century.
On his first visit to Dili since taking office last year, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inked the pact with East Timor’s Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, clarifying 96 per cent of their mutual frontier.
Both countries meanwhile have avoided addressing military-backed atrocities committed after Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and before it pulled out in 1999, killing hundreds in a scorched earth policy.
However, Mr Yudhoyono is expected to make a symbolic visit on Saturday to the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, where Indonesian troops massacred dozens of people protesting the death of a pro-independence activist 14 years ago.
Indonesian troops opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who were holding a procession at the Santa Cruz cemetery in November 1991 to honour Sebastiao Gomez, who was killed a week earlier by the Indonesian military.
More than 200 people were believed killed in the shooting, which prompted the United States to restrict arms sales to Indonesia and suspend training of Indonesian soldiers.
Yudhoyono is also expected to pay a visit to a monument commemorating hundreds of Indonesian soldiers who died in East Timor.—AFP
