Canada faces facts - alone

By Mathew Dearnaley

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy was the only Apec politician prepared yesterday to confront the human face of East Timor, pressed up against the Aotea Square security blanket.

But student exiles hope more leaders will listen today, with the possible arrivals in Auckland of resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta and Carlos Belo, the Catholic Bishop of Dili who was driven out of East Timor on Monday.

Alliance MP Matt Robson said the main East Timorese leader, Xanana Gusmao, phoned him from Jakarta early yesterday to ask him to make arrangements for Bishop Belo to come to New Zealand.

It was not known last night whether the ailing bishop would be able to make the trip, but his arrival would strengthen the diplomatic push by Mr Ramos-Horta, with whom he shares a Nobel peace prize.

Mr Axworthy, who initiated a crisis meeting of 18 Foreign Ministers at the Auckland Town Hall, stepped outside the Aotea Square cordon for all of four minutes for a footpath encounter with six East Timorese students.

Told by spokesman Jorge da Conceicao Teme that his people were being "killed like animals," the Canadian minister said he was unable to give guarantees about peacekeeping intervention in East Timor.

But he said the town hall meeting, chaired by New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Don McKinnon, was a major departure from the Apec trade agenda.

He said the meeting produced important statements supporting the East Timorese people.

These would be conveyed to Indonesia and the United Nations Security Council for consideration in its assessment of the most effective way to provide security for East Timor.

Mr Axworthy said most delegates indicated they would be prepared to participate in some form of international action and a number had discussed providing immediate humanitarian aid.

But he hastened away when Mr Teme attempted to question him, saying: "We'll see what we can do."

An early attempt to set up the meeting appeared to falter when word arrived from the Canadian delegation that it would be too "impromptu."

Mr Teme said the Canadian's assurances seemed "very soft" and called on the international community to threaten to chop all economic aid to Indonesia unless it accepted peacekeepers.

Males and females were being separated in East Timor, with the women being deported to West Timor or other Indonesian provinces, and the men fleeing to the hills or being killed.

He did not know the fate of his four brothers, although the wives of some had made it to West Timor, where their safety was still not assured.