U.N. officials call
voter turnout
‘extraordinary’
DILI, Indonesia (AP) -
Independence activists claimed victory
Monday in a referendum on East
Timor’s future, buoyed by long lines of
people who defied the threat of violence
to vote in the U.N.-sponsored ballot.
The claim came even though not a
single vote from Monday’s election had
been counted yet - the result will not be
known for days, Sept. 7 at the latest.
Monday’s ballot offered the remote,
mostly Roman Catholic territory north
of Australia a choice between seceding
or becoming an autonomous region
within Indonesia, the world’s largest
Muslim nation.
U.N. officials said Tuesday that 98.6
percent of East Timor’s 451,000 regis
tered voters, including 13,000 people
overseas, had cast ballots, despite a pro
longed terror campaign by army
backed militias to intimidate voters.
“The result of the turnout shows that
what was defeated was fear and vio
lence,” Carina Perelli, a U.N. electoral
official, said Tuesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan called the turnout “extraordi
nary.”
“On the whole, polling proceeded
smoothly, a testament to the determina
tion and patience of the voters, despite
some intimidation by militias,” he said
in a statement issued Monday in New
York.
Monday’s vote was mainiy peace
ful, but one U.N. employee and two oth
ers were killed, and polling was held up
temporarily at several stations.
The ballot is a test for both
Indonesia’s fledgling democracy, which
has promised to respect the results, and
for the United Nations, which has long
sought to resolve the dispute over East
Timor. In the months ahead of the vote,
dozens of people were killed in political
violence in East Timor, and more than
60,000 fled their homes.
Enthusiasm was so strong that some
villagers trekked for miles to cast bal
lots Monday, while others slept outside
polling centers so they could be first in
line to vote. Pro-independence guerril
las, who have fought Indonesian troops
for decades, put down their weapons
and walked from their jungle hideouts
to cast ballots.
Independence activists said the high
turnout assured them of victory.
“I’m sure that we have won. We
have struggled for 23 years against
Indonesian repression,” jailed indepen
dence leader Jose Alexandre “Xanana”
Gusmao was quoted as saying by one of
his lawyers.
Many predict Gusmao, who voted
under house arrest in the Indonesian
capital of Jakarta, will become its first
president if East Timor does indeed gain
independence. Indonesia has promised
to release him after results are
announced.
Despite Gusmao’s confidence, no
one celebrated after the polls closed
Monday. Anti-independence militia
men, armed with homemade guns,
machetes and even military weapons,
still roam many parts of the half-island
territory, 1,250 miles east of Jakarta.
International officials have found
strong evidence the militias are support
ed by sections of Indonesia’s powerful
military. Some militia leaders have
promised to accept the result, but others
have warned of civil war if indepen
dence is declared.
Some voters were clearly intimidat
ed.
“The militias said they were going
to count the votes, not the United
Nations. They said they would know
who voted for what,” whispered a 37
year-old farmer from Liquica, who fear
fully asked not to be named.
Organizers planned to bring all bal
lots to the territorial capital, Dili, to be
counted to ensure voter secrecy and
lessen the risk of reprisals.
Turkey’s army takes
salute down a notch
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - In
normal times, Aug. 30 is the day that
Turkey’s powerful army salutes itself,
rolling tanks down city boulevards and
sending sleek fighter jets streaking
overhead to commemorate Victory
Day, the country’s main military holi
day.
This year was different - no big
parades, no mass rallies, no flowery
speeches. All but a few low-key cele
brations were called off, in deference
to the more than 14,000 people who
died in Turkey’s devastating earth
quake Aug. 17.
Despite its far-reaching influence,
the army likes to avoid appearing too
overbearing.
In the chaotic hours after the 7.4
magnitude temblor leveled a wide
swath of northwestern Turkey, top
generals said they were ready to
enforce martial law if the government
declared it. But Prime Minister Bulent
Ecevit, mindful of sensitivities over
Turkey’s three military coups since
1960, balked.
The reluctance to turn matters over
to the army might actually have been a
relief to the military brass, said politi
cal analyst liter Turan of Istanbul
Bilge University.
“It’s not my impression that there
was a great deal of enthusiasm among
the generals about martial law - I
think they offered more as a courtesy,”
he said. “And when the government
said no, it saved the army from respon
sibility for a rescue effort that was
generally viewed as somewhat incom
petent.”
The quake hit close to home for
the military, wrecking the country’s
main naval base in the Sea of Marmara
port of Golcuk, where hundreds of top
officers were on hand for a military
ceremony that took place hours before
the quake struck.
About 150 senior naval officers,
including an admiral, were reported
killed at Golcuk along with more than
80 enlisted men. Hundreds were miss
ing, and more than 300 family mem
bers at the base were killed.
Despite the material losses and
deaths, the catastrophe offered an
unexpected tactical gain to the mili
tary: In the quake’s aftermath, the gov
ernment has moved against Turkey’s
Islamic groups, long the army’s bane.
In the months before the quake,
the military had been alarmed by what
it viewed as government laxity toward
the Islamists, including a constitution
al amendment allowing banned
Islamic leaders to return to politics
and the sanctioning of Koranic cours
es for students as young as 12.
Even with Monday’s military cele
brations markedly toned down, the
army used the occasion to tout its role
as the prime defender of Turkey’s sec
ular traditions - and warn against any
bid to subvert them.
“Any attempt to divide (the state)
or change its secular and democratic
structure will be doomed by the
Turkish army’s determination and
will,” the army chief of staff, Gen.
Huseyin Kivrikoglu, said on Victory
Day.
“An army that mainly works to
safeguard the country from external
forces may be for the best.”
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