Opposition
angry at US troop agreement
08/10/
2002
By Jill Jolliffe, Dili
A leader
of East Timor's parliamentary opposition has described an agreement
regulating conditions for US troops in the territory as "an affront
to East
Timorese sovereignty".
Leandro Isaac, of the Social Democratic Party, said he would demand that
Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta justify his stand to parliament when
he
returns from an overseas trip this week.
The Status of Forces Agreement was signed last Tuesday during President
Xanana Gusmao's first official visit to Washington. It established a legal
framework for relations between East Timor and American soldiers based
here.
Under the agreement, US soldiers are exempt from prosecution by Timorese
courts.
An American embassy spokeswoman described the deal as "a standard
legal
agreement we have with all countries where American troops are based".
She
said that the "very small" US contingent in East Timor was not
part of the UN
peacekeeping unit, making a separate agreement necessary.
Mr Isaac said his party supported defence ties with the US, but the agreement
had been signed without any foreign policy debate and without previously
consulting parliament.
The Social Democratic leader said it was the second such agreement signed
with the US without consultation. He said the first treaty, concerning
immunity from prosecution for American soldiers under the newly established
International Criminal Court, contradicts East Timor's treaty obligations.
"A week after we subscribed to the Rome Treaty for the International
Criminal
Court, the government granted immunity from prosecution by the court for
American soldiers based here," he said. Mr Isaac said the stand undermined
East Timor's opposition to immunity from prosecution for Indonesian soldiers
accused of crimes in the territory in 1999. "We are arguing that
they should
be tried by an international court, but this reduces our credibility,"
he said.