Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor, renewing his appeal for the immediate intervention of a United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor, yesterday, called on the US and the international community at large to deal with the crisis as they had dealt with Kosovo.
Bishop Belo said that the most urgent, immediate priority in East Timor was for UN intervention to halt the campaign of murder and persecution currently enacted by pro-Indonesia militias.
"When I saw the Pope on Monday I asked him to intervene with President Clinton in order to speed up the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force. . . I asked the Pope and the Vatican to talk to President Clinton because he is the boss of the world. . . and I just hope that the United States will be consistent and that they won't use one measure for Kosovo and another for East Timor," he added.
During his animated news conference, Bishop Belo angrily repeated claims that the violence currently perpetrated by pro-Indonesia militias had been planned as far back as December 1998 and not just in the wake of the August 30th referendum.
Asked if he felt that those who supported the independence of East Timor should be armed, Bishop Belo replied: "Those on the side of the resistance have not killed, have not attacked people, have not burned down houses . . . and it is good that they have not. . . However, it is also necessary to defend ourselves, Catholic teaching allows for the right to self-defence".