South Africa has expelled Portugal's ambassador over the leaking of a misdirected note from President Nelson Mandela to his Indonesian counterpart, but diplomatic ties remain intact, government sources said yesterday.
Meanwhile, it was announced in Pretoria that the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, was to visit South Africa to brief Mr Mandela on negotiations on East Timor, as South Africa had announced earlier. The "confusion" arose from an unclear cellular phone conversation.
Instead Mr Annan's special rapporteur on East timor, Mr Jamsheed Marker, a Pakistani former UN ambassador, is to visit Mr Mandela.
After a recent meeting with President Suharto, Mr Mandela wrote in mid-July to the Indonesian leader urging the release from prison of the Timorese guerrilla leader, Xanana Gusmao, and other rebels, as a first step towards negotiation of the former Portuguese colony's future status.
Two South African government sources confirmed an Indonesian newspaper report that the Portuguese ambassador, Mr Vasco Valente, had last week been given 48 hours to leave the country.
The Mandela letter was sent in error to the embassy of Portugal, and was neither returned nor forwarded to the Indonesian embassy. The letter was leaked to newspapers in Portugal before President Suharto was made aware of it and the incident bruised his attempt to bolster a UN effort to resolve the conflict over Indonesia's illegal rule in East Timor.
President Mandela, whose own release after 27 years in jail opened the way in 1990 to a peaceful settlement in South Africa four years later, met Gusmao during his recent visit to Indonesia. He has since invited President Suharto to visit South Africa in November, following a proposed visit by the East Timorese bishop and Nobel peace laureate, Dr Ximenes Carlos Belo in October.
In Lisbon, the foreign ministry said it "vigorously deplores" the decision by South Africa to expel its ambassador.
President Mandela's spokesman, Mr Parks Mankahlana, said South Africa would not comment on any aspect of the incident, adding that the letter had since been received by Gen Suharto and that the peace process was on track.
At the UN in New York, talks between Indonesian and Portuguese officials on the future of East Timor opened yesterday, a UN spokesperson said.
The talks aim at setting "a general framework for a political solution," a Portuguese diplomat said. He said the talks would focus mainly on human rights, disarmament, demilitarisation, as well as linguistic, religious and cultural problems.
A UN spokesman said only that the UN mediator, Mr Jamsheed Marker of Pakistan, met both sides beforehand.
Indonesia invaded the territory in 1975 after Portugal relinquished colonial rule in 1974, and a small group of armed guerrillas is still fighting Indonesian rule, which is not recognised by the UN.