Wheels within wheels steered a result in Timor

By Audrey Young

"I'm not just here for the drinks," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as he left the Carlton Hotel late one night, snapping at reporters who wanted to know if he had been at a meeting.

He had been discussing East Timor with counterparts from New Zealand, Don McKinnon; the United States, Madeleine Albright; Canada, Lloyd Axworthy; and Britain, Robin Cook, who initiated his own visit to New Zealand.

And it was one of hundreds of encounters in Auckland between leaders, ministers and officials - in person and on telephones - that helped to force a turning point in the East Timor crisis.

Among the more significant was at least one call, understood to be less than complimentary, made by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to Indonesian military commander General Wiranto.

It is also believed that US President Bill Clinton spoke to General Wiranto before the Indonesian Government acquiesced to a United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor.

Communication between Auckland and Jakarta has been so open that key leaders knew on Sunday morning that Indonesian President Jusuf Habibie would invite in a UN force at midnight.

Mr Howard also made a few forceful calls to Mr Clinton last week to try to move the US from its lukewarm interest in East Timor.

The threat of international economic sanctions against the fragile Indonesian economy, and its growing pariah status, had their effect. So did the Security Council inspection of Dili.

But the Apec side-meeting in Auckland, in tandem with mounting international pressure, was not without its impact as well.

All 19 countries were represented in a special meeting alongside the Apec foreign ministers' meeting last Thursday.

Even Indonesia was there as an observer - though there are suggestions that the representative was instructed not to attend the meeting but to observe who went in.

Just the fact that Asean representatives attended gave Indonesia the message that it was alone on this one.

Asean ministers act collegially and do not usually tolerate criticism of any of their number publicly for what are seen as private domestic issues.

That is why getting Indonesia's Asean friends, especially Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, to the table on East Timor last week was seen as such a victory.

The United States is said to have pressed influential Japan and Korea to attend. Even China, which is usually super-sensitive about so-called domestic interference, was on-side.

Thai Foreign Minister Pitsuwan Surin helped to get Asean representation there - either senior officials or ministers.

Malaysia attended but gave itself only observer status. But by the end of the day, it had committed itself to a peacekeeping force.

The night before, it became apparent that Asean countries would attend only if Mr McKinnon chaired the meeting.

Mr Downer and Mr Axworthy were unacceptable, they discovered in their meeting the night before at the Carlton to go over how the meeting would be handled.

For the first time it seemed all 19 countries might turn up.

South America was interested. Chile, for example, was hardened by the news that the family its UN observer MPs had stayed with in East Timor had been murdered.

The meeting produced nothing. Mr McKinnon simply held a press conference and repeated expressions of horror.

At the time, it was judged publicly to be somewhat useless because it did not satisfy demand for the sickening scenes in East Timor to end.

The agreement of Indonesia to a peacekeeping force suggests that judgment may have been too quick.