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OO RUEHCHI RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHDT #0427/01 2340936
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 220936Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY DILI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2902
INFO RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 2233
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0653
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON 0642
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0480
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0580
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0374
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 0726
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0506

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DILI 000427 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS, IO 
USUN FOR RICHARD MCCURRY 
NSC FOR HOLLY MORROW 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  8/22/2016 
TAGS: PREL UNSC KPKO TT PO AS CH JA
SUBJECT: RAMOS-HORTA WILL REINFORCE SUPPORT FOR JAPANESE DRAFT 
RESOLUTION 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 00135746; 
 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 000137410 
 
DILI 00000427  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Grover Joseph Rees, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy 
Dili, Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
(1) (C/NF) Summary:  Ambassador met with Prime Minister Jose 
Ramos-Horta to discuss the status of negotiations in the UN 
Security Council over a resolution for a new UN mission in East 
Timor.  Ramos-Horta agreed to reinforce his message, included in 
an August 15 letter, that the Japanese draft resolution is 
acceptable to the Government of East Timor.  He said the 
Japanese resolution was a good compromise because it allowed for 
a review of the situation in or around October, when it would be 
more clear whether East Timor needed peacekeeping forces and 
whether the current arrangement should be changed.  He added 
that the Australian armed forces in East Timor had been both 
responsive and effective, probably moreso than a UN force would 
be.  Ramos-Horta added, however, that he had already expressed 
this view earlier in the day to the Portuguese and Brazilian 
Ambassadors, but that these diplomats had expressed 
disappointment that East Timor was taking this position.  He 
said the Chinese delegation to the UN had been even more 
forceful, complaining to an East Timorese diplomat that China 
felt "betrayed" by East Timor's change of position.  He 
speculated that China was reluctant to see Japan taking the lead 
on this matter, and that some (but not all) Portuguese 
internationals in Dili are obsessed with what they see as 
Australia's efforts to exert undue influence in East Timor. 
Ramos-Horta said, however, that he had convinced the entire 
Timorese leadership including President Xanana Gusmao that the 
Japanese resolution was a good basis for a compromise to get the 
new mission started as soon as possible. In addition to speaking 
again with East Timor's UN mission, he said he would try to make 
a statement to the press reiterating the advantages of the 
Japanese compromise. End Summary. 
 
(2) (U) Ambassador met with Prime Minister Ramos-Horta on August 
21 to urge that East Timorese diplomats be as strong as possible 
in support of the Japanese draft of a Security Council 
resolution for a new mission to succeed the United Nations 
Office in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL).  Ambassador thanked the Prime 
Minister for the letter he sent on August 18, but noted that 
some parties who favored a "blue helmeted" peacekeeping force 
were interpreting the letter to mean that East Timor still 
favored the blue helmets and would accept the Japanese 
compromise only grudgingly.  Ambassador also reminded 
Ramos-Horta that the language calling for review of the 
continuing need for international military presence within two 
or three months had been inserted after Ramos-Horta himself 
suggested it to Ambassador and others last week.  Ambassador 
added that the Japanese draft, which would continue the 
650-strong Australian military presence pending a review of East 
Timor's needs within a few months, would almost certainly be 
more protective of East Timor's security than an immediate 
switch to a smaller blue-helmeted force. 
 
(3) (C) Ramos-Horta responded that he agreed with the points 
made by Ambassador.  He said he would be happy to call Foreign 
Minister Jose Luis Guterres in New York, with whom he has been 
in frequent contact on this matter, to stress that East Timor's 
diplomats should emphasize the part of his letter that says the 
Japanese draft is a good basis for a compromise, not the part 
that says Timor would have preferred a United Nations 
peacekeeping force.   He praised the Australian military forces 
in East Timor, saying that they had been responsive and 
effective whenever he called on them to address a particular 
threat or crime, citing a case in which he asked Australian 
Brigadier General Mick Slater to take action against dissident 
Timorese soldiers who had gone to the Oecussi enclave with 
automatic weapons and "the Australians had Blackhawk helicopters 
in Oecussi that same afternoon to pick them up and bring them 
back here."  In contrast, he said that a multilateral UN force 
"would have talked to someone in New York and probably said they 
could not do it." 
 
 
DILI 00000427  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
(4) (C) Ramos-Horta added that the review provision in the 
Japanese draft was better than an immediate switch to blue 
helmets, because "by October the situation might have calmed 
down, national dialogue and reconciliation might have worked, 
and we might not need peacekeepers at all.  Or we might need a 
bigger force, or a different one.  We'll know more by then.  And 
even if the Security Council voted today for a multilateral 
force, they might not arrive for a couple of months." 
 
(5) (C/NF) The Prime Minister added, however, that he as well as 
East Timor's UN mission had already made their position clear to 
governments that have not supported the Japanese draft, and that 
so far the only effect had been to irritate representatives of 
these governments.  For instance, he said he had told the 
Portuguese and Brazilian Ambassadors earlier in the day 
(apparently in response to a joint demarche on the subject by 
the two Ambassadors) that it would be better to go forward with 
the Japanese draft, and that they had both expressed 
disappointment.  He said a representative of the Chinese mission 
to the UN had been even more blunt, stating to a Timorese 
diplomat that "China feels betrayed by East Timor's change of 
position on this issue."  Ramos-Horta speculated that the 
Chinese government might be irritated at the leading role played 
by Japan on this matter, and that the Lusophone ambassadors 
might be motivated in part by a fear he said was shared by some, 
but not all, Portuguese nationals in Dili, that Australia might 
seek to exert undue influence in East Timor.  He concluded that 
"sometimes I don't know what gets into our friends." 
 
(6) (C) Despite this foreign disappointment to East Timor's 
newly nuanced position on international peacekeeping forces, 
Ramos-Horta said he had convinced the entire Timorese 
leadership, including President Gusmao, that the Japanese draft 
afforded a good basis for a quick compromise that would get the 
new mission established as soon as possible.  He added that 
"even Alkatiri" had been convinced --- an apparent reference to 
the close alliance that continues to exist between the former 
Prime Minister and the official and unofficial Portuguese 
expatriate community in Dili. 
 
(7) (SBU) Ramos-Horta said that in addition to communicating 
again with East Timor's mission to the UN, he would try to make 
a statement soon in response to press inquiries reiterating the 
desirability of the Japanese compromise. 
REES