/** reg.easttimor: 2964.0 **/

/ reg.easttimor: 2964.0 /

Topic: NATO chief: Timor intervention "needed without any doubt"
Written 5:34 AM Sep 8, 1999 by Joyo@aol.com in cdp:reg.easttimor
Subject: NATO chief: Timor intervention "needed without any doubt"

Urgent international intervention needed in East Timor -- Solana

BRUSSELS, Sept 8 (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Javier Solana Wednesday called for an urgent international intervention to stem escalating violence in East Timor, currently under Indonesian martial law.

Asked during a press briefing whether such an intervention was needed, the outgoing NATO chief said, "yes, without any doubt."

But he quickly added that the East Timor situation bore no relation to that in Kosovo, where NATO conducted an 11-week bombing campaign against the Yugoslav government.

"The United Nations are in the process of resolving this question," Solana said of East Timor, where the Indonesian government Wednesday rejected any deployment of international peacekeeping forces.

Solana made his comments after a meeting with Wolfgang Petritsch, civilian High Representative in Bosnia-Hercegovina.