RAMOS-HORTA WILL REINFORCE SUPPORT FOR JAPANESE DRAFT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DILI 000427 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS, IO USUN FOR RICHARD MCCURRY NSC FOR HOLLY MORROW E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/22/2016 TAGS: PREL UNSC KPKO TT PO AS CH JA SUBJECT: RAMOS-HORTA WILL REINFORCE SUPPORT FOR JAPANESE DRAFT RESOLUTION REF: A. (A) STATE 00135746; ¶B. (B) STATE 000137410 DILI 00000427 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Grover Joseph Rees, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy Dili, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) (1) (C/NF) Summary: Ambassador met with Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta to discuss the status of negotiations in the UN Security Council over a resolution for a new UN mission in East Timor. Ramos-Horta agreed to reinforce his message, included in an August 15 letter, that the Japanese draft resolution is acceptable to the Government of East Timor. He said the Japanese resolution was a good compromise because it allowed for a review of the situation in or around October, when it would be more clear whether East Timor needed peacekeeping forces and whether the current arrangement should be changed. He added that the Australian armed forces in East Timor had been both responsive and effective, probably moreso than a UN force would be. Ramos-Horta added, however, that he had already expressed this view earlier in the day to the Portuguese and Brazilian Ambassadors, but that these diplomats had expressed disappointment that East Timor was taking this position. He said the Chinese delegation to the UN had been even more forceful, complaining to an East Timorese diplomat that China felt "betrayed" by East Timor's change of position. He speculated that China was reluctant to see Japan taking the lead on this matter, and that some (but not all) Portuguese internationals in Dili are obsessed with what they see as Australia's efforts to exert undue influence in East Timor. Ramos-Horta said, however, that he had convinced the entire Timorese leadership including President Xanana Gusmao that the Japanese resolution was a good basis for a compromise to get the new mission started as soon as possible. In addition to speaking again with East Timor's UN mission, he said he would try to make a statement to the press reiterating the advantages of the Japanese compromise. End Summary. (2) (U) Ambassador met with Prime Minister Ramos-Horta on August 21 to urge that East Timorese diplomats be as strong as possible in support of the Japanese draft of a Security Council resolution for a new mission to succeed the United Nations Office in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL). Ambassador thanked the Prime Minister for the letter he sent on August 18, but noted that some parties who favored a "blue helmeted" peacekeeping force were interpreting the letter to mean that East Timor still favored the blue helmets and would accept the Japanese compromise only grudgingly. Ambassador also reminded Ramos-Horta that the language calling for review of the continuing need for international military presence within two or three months had been inserted after Ramos-Horta himself suggested it to Ambassador and others last week. Ambassador added that the Japanese draft, which would continue the 650-strong Australian military presence pending a review of East Timor's needs within a few months, would almost certainly be more protective of East Timor's security than an immediate switch to a smaller blue-helmeted force. (3) (C) Ramos-Horta responded that he agreed with the points made by Ambassador. He said he would be happy to call Foreign Minister Jose Luis Guterres in New York, with whom he has been in frequent contact on this matter, to stress that East Timor's diplomats should emphasize the part of his letter that says the Japanese draft is a good basis for a compromise, not the part that says Timor would have preferred a United Nations peacekeeping force. He praised the Australian military forces in East Timor, saying that they had been responsive and effective whenever he called on them to address a particular threat or crime, citing a case in which he asked Australian Brigadier General Mick Slater to take action against dissident Timorese soldiers who had gone to the Oecussi enclave with automatic weapons and "the Australians had Blackhawk helicopters in Oecussi that same afternoon to pick them up and bring them back here." In contrast, he said that a multilateral UN force "would have talked to someone in New York and probably said they could not do it." DILI 00000427 002.2 OF 002 (4) (C) Ramos-Horta added that the review provision in the Japanese draft was better than an immediate switch to blue helmets, because "by October the situation might have calmed down, national dialogue and reconciliation might have worked, and we might not need peacekeepers at all. Or we might need a bigger force, or a different one. We'll know more by then. And even if the Security Council voted today for a multilateral force, they might not arrive for a couple of months." (5) (C/NF) The Prime Minister added, however, that he as well as East Timor's UN mission had already made their position clear to governments that have not supported the Japanese draft, and that so far the only effect had been to irritate representatives of these governments. For instance, he said he had told the Portuguese and Brazilian Ambassadors earlier in the day (apparently in response to a joint demarche on the subject by the two Ambassadors) that it would be better to go forward with the Japanese draft, and that they had both expressed disappointment. He said a representative of the Chinese mission to the UN had been even more blunt, stating to a Timorese diplomat that "China feels betrayed by East Timor's change of position on this issue." Ramos-Horta speculated that the Chinese government might be irritated at the leading role played by Japan on this matter, and that the Lusophone ambassadors might be motivated in part by a fear he said was shared by some, but not all, Portuguese nationals in Dili, that Australia might seek to exert undue influence in East Timor. He concluded that "sometimes I don't know what gets into our friends." (6) (C) Despite this foreign disappointment to East Timor's newly nuanced position on international peacekeeping forces, Ramos-Horta said he had convinced the entire Timorese leadership, including President Gusmao, that the Japanese draft afforded a good basis for a quick compromise that would get the new mission established as soon as possible. He added that "even Alkatiri" had been convinced --- an apparent reference to the close alliance that continues to exist between the former Prime Minister and the official and unofficial Portuguese expatriate community in Dili. (7) (SBU) Ramos-Horta said that in addition to communicating again with East Timor's mission to the UN, he would try to make a statement soon in response to press inquiries reiterating the desirability of the Japanese compromise. REES