ASEAN can help East Timor rebuild: Straits Times

ASEAN countries can help East Timor to rebuild following the devastation caused by pro-Jakarta militias after the territory voted for independence, the Straits Times said on Tuesday.

"East Timor has to start from scratch because virtually everything in the territory was destroyed and its people dispersed," the pro-government Singapore newspaper said in an editorial.

"No homes and buildings have been spared. There is no water, no electricity, no communications. Its prospects are extremely grim."

The daily noted a World Bank mission was visiting East Timor this week to assess the costs of reconstruction and this was estimated to be probably much more than US$100 million for the first year.

"East Timor's resistance leaders said all the aid would have to be from abroad. The main contributors are likely to be Portugal and Australia," it said.

"East Timor needs all the help it can get to recover from its trauma. But Mr (resistance leader Xanana) Gusmao has said that he would not want any from Indonesia. This sentiment is understandable.

"But other ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries can help East Timor, if he should approach them," it said.

Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly last week ratified the result of the August 30 vote, clearing the way for East Timor's handover to the United Nations on its way to freedom.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Monday for a force of nearly 11,000 troops and police, and thousands of civilians, to lead East Timor to independence in two to three years.

A Straits Times report (Oct 20) quoted Mr Lee Kuan Yew on East Timor problem.

At A dinner for business leaders, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew was asked whether Japan and regional countries could have played a bigger role in the East Timor peacekeeping efforts.

"To be fair, East Timor is not a Southeast Asian problem. It would not have been a problem if it was left to Southeast Asia and Japan.

"It was a problem created by Portugal, the European Union and human rights groups in America and Australia...

"The problem started, not because of Asean, but because these other countries said: 'Look, the East Timorese are unhappy'.

"But there are many unhappy minorities living very uncomfortable lives in Asean. You know that, I know that. We look the other way.

"To go in and intervene would have the whole Asean solidarity breaking up."