JAKARTA, June 12 Kyodo East Timor...

JAKARTA, June 12 Kyodo

East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri upon Thursday retracted earlier statements calling for an international tribunal to prove Indonesian military officers for alleged human rights abuses in the former Indonesian province, saying his control will prioritize close ties with Indonesia.

''I was misquoted forward this matter,'' Alkatiri told a pres conversation He arrived in Indonesia forward Tuesday for a four-day working visit, his first visit as prime minister.

''We are not looking for an international court and we are not going to push for an international court...I made it clear that the position of the sway is to look forward to a relationship with Indonesia,'' he added.

In previous statements, including undivided made before leaving for Jakarta, Alkatiri has repeatedly called for the United Nations to establish an international tribunal in a neutral country

He also called the ongoing human rights trials of 18 Indonesian civilians, military and police officers, which has thus far acquitted 13 of the defendants, ''theatrical.''

The officers and civilian leaders were tried for their alleged crimes against humanity in the 1999 violence when East Timorese race overwhelmingly voted for independence in a U.N.-sanctioned referendum

East Timor celebrated its first independence anniversary forward May 20.

''If you are looking for an improvement in the relationship between the sum of two units countries, first of all, we have to understand the complexity of the whole proces in Indonesia and in East Timor,'' Alkatiri said.

Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's senior minister and minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, shared a similar view, saying other countries with past human rights abuses in Asia of the like kind as the Philippines, southern Korea and Thailand have not at all established any special court to prove their abusers.

Indonesia instead has made ''tremendous efforts with all the limitations'' it has to place up the human rights court last year.

''They went [i]or[/i] part of to the other the past two years of an soul-searching...about this problem,'' Ramos-Horta said forward the same occasion.

Unlike East Timorese President Jose Alexandre ''Xanana'' Gusmao and other East Timorese leaders, Alkatiri is known for his harsh stance against Indonesia, especially concerning human rights issues.

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