The first ASEAN-UN Summit in Bangkok on Saturday an ideal occasion for the announcement of an ASEAN peace-building initiative in East Timor to create an  infrastructure for peace, development and justice


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
 

(Penang, Tuesday): The first ASEAN-United Nations Summit will be held in Bangkok on Saturday before the official opening of the nine-day UNCTAD X - the quadrennial 10th meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to be attended by more than 3000 official delegates from 188 countries.

The ASEAN-UN summit will be the first of its kind and will highlight future co-operation between the two organisations and top on the agenda will be co-operation in peace and security policy-making, human resource development and future role of the UN in the region.

The first ASEAN-UN Summit in Bangkok on Saturday would be the ideal  occasion for the announcement of an ASEAN peace-building initiative in East Timor to create its infrastructure for peace, development and justice involving the combined efforts of governments and the civil society in ASEAN.

The current visit  of  East Timor independence leaders Xanana Gusmao and Nobel Peace prize laureate Jose Ramos-Harta to ASEAN countries should mark a new beginning in the relationship between ASEAN governments  with East Timorese leaders, rising above the bitterness of the recent past as reflected in the earlier statement by  Ramos Horta that East Timor was  part of South Pacific nations, not part of Asean and that  Asean members were not neutral but were accomplices of Indonesia.

The commitment by ASEAN governments at the ASEAN-UN Summit in Bangkok this Saturday to place the rebuilding of the East Timorese economy as an integral part of the ASEAN agenda can be given concrete shape and form when the ASEAN Finance Ministers meet in Brunei for their  fourth official meeting on March 25 and 26, 2000.

The United Nations  and World Bank have estimated that East Timor needs at least US$100 million a year over the next three years for  reconstruction and development, primarily  in infrastructure, health, and education.

ASEAN would be able to go a long way to restore its international standing if it could play an active role in the launching of an ASEAN peace-building initiative in East Timor to create its infrastructure for peace, development and justice to enable it to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.

(8/2/2000)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman