[asia-apec 185] EAST TIMOR/apec/Jose Ramos-Horta ban

[sonny at nation.nationgroup.com]

PHILIPPINE LEADER REJECTS PEACEMAKER ROLE IN EAST TIMOR
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MANILA,Wednesday, Oct 23, 1996 -- Agence France-Presse

PRESIDENT Fidel Ramos on Wednesday rejected a suggestion by 1996 Nobel
Peace prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta that the Philippine leader broker
peace talks between East Timor and Indonesia.

"While some of us are known to be peacemakers in our own country, we would
not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," Ramos said in
his weekly news conference.

"I think we better leave it in that manner unless we are also from the
other parties involved," he added.

Horta, a roving advocate of East Timor's independence from Indonesia, made
the proposal for Ramos to broker peace negotiations between Jakarta and
East Timor during a telephone interview on Tuesday with Manila-based
journalists from his exile base in Sydney.

He said this would reciprocate Indonesia's brokering of a peace treaty
between Manila and Muslim rebels that ended a 24-year Islamic rebellion in
the southern Philippines last month.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper quoted Horta as saying he would
nominate Ramos for the Nobel Peace prize if he successfully brokers a
peace pact between Jakarta and East Timor.

The Philippine government on Monday ordered the Nobel laureate banned from
entering the Philippines to attend a non-government conference that will
coincide with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum summit
hosted by Manila.

Among the 18 Pacific Rim leaders who will attend the Apec Summit on
November 25 is Indonesian President Suharto, and Manila fears that
admitting Horta into the country would embarrass the Indonesian leader.

Ramos, at the news briefing, said Horta's presence during the Apec summit
was "inimical" to the interests of the country, which considers hosting
the summit as its coming out party on the international scene.

"It is not so much the threat to national security that we are banning
foreigners from this announced fora related to Apec. It is that it is
inimical to our national interest," he said.

Ramos said the ban on Horta "emnates precisely from what is mandated in
our constitution and existing laws in regard to the non-interference of
foreigners in our internal affairs."