Bombs stop U.N. envoy

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34072, 9 February 1976, Page 15

Bombs stop U.N. envoy

iV.Z. Pre.s.s Assn —CopyrtgrJ;

SYDNEY. February 8

Indonesia was using |2O aircraft to bomb four i vital Fretilin-held airstrips in East Timor where the special United Nations envoy. Mr Vittorio Winspeare Guicciardi could land for a. proposed fact-finding mission, the Fretilin foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Jose Ramos Horta, said in Sydney today.

Mr Horta, in an interview shortly before a planned meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General [(Dr Kurt Waldheim), claimed 'the air assault on the landing strips had been continuing since Thursday. “The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of East Timor (Mr Nicolau Lobato) has informed me that 20 Indonesian planes have been bombing and had dropped 2000 paratroopers at. the same time,” he said.

Coded radio messages received by Australian telecommunications officials in the northern city of Darwin, said Mr Horta reported the Indonesian paratroopers "had been pushed back and are now pinned on the beach at Betano” on the south coast.

There had been heavy casualties on both sides and “25 or 26” Indonesian soldiers had been taken prisoner by the Fretilin independence forces, he said. The airstrips, at Same, Suai and Viqueque on the south coast and Con in the north-east of the Indonesianheld island, had earlier been suggested as possible landing sites for the United Nations envoy, who flew to Sydney from Darwin yesterday' after a week of fruitless attemnts to arrange a visit to Fretilin-

held territory in East. Timor.

But, although the airstrips were still in Fretilin hands, said Mr Horta, “with the Indonesian bombing no plane can land.”

Mr Winspeare, had earlier agreed to conditions set down by the territory’s proIndonesian provisional government which included demands that it be informed of the time and venue for the meeting and the Portuguese corvette carrying the envoy anchor offshore and fly the United Nations flag. The envoy is due to report to Dr Waldheim this evening after claiming that Mr Horta’s departure from Darwin on Friday had frustrated his attempts to reach the island.

Mr Horta, however, branded the conditions laid down by the territory's provisional government as “Indonesian” and rejected the requirement that it be given prior advice on the time and venue of the meeting.