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Annan sets off for 17-day trip to Asia

UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Kofi Annan sets off on a 17-day trip to Asia late on Tuesday to call for a boost in trade with developing nations, laud Jakarta's new government and deal with East Timorese forced into exile.

His time will be about equally divided between issues relating to East Timor, where the United Nations is administering the territory during its transition to independence from Indonesia, and a major U.N. Trade and Development Conference (UNCTAD) in Bangkok where he gives a keynote speech on Saturday.

His spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said that Annan would deliver a message that "international markets should be opened on a fair basis to developing countries so that they can trade their way out of poverty rather than rely on aid and handouts."

Eckhard said the themes of Annan's speech would be similar to those in his address to the World Trade Organisation in Seattle on Nov. 30. His text was released but protesters against the WTO session kept him from leaving his hotel.

Annan has been telling corporations for several years to institute voluntary social reforms, but he has opposed them as part of WTO talks, saying they would be used as an excuse to increase protectionism in the West.

His main theme is that there will be a backlash against trade liberalisation unless poor nations are convinced that globalization will benefit them.

From Thailand, Annan goes to Singapore on Feb. 13 for meetings with government leaders and then to Jakarta on Feb. 15 for a session with Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid the following day. He is expected to voice strong support for democratic aims of the new Indonesian government.

U.N. officials and diplomats have moderated their criticism of Indonesia since Wahid took power, mindful of the country's difficult transition to democracy and careful not to exacerbate ties between the president and a restive military.

Elements of the military are accused of training and aiding militia in East Timor, who conducted a scorched-earth policy in September following an Aug. 30 vote for independence from Jakarta. The United Nations has the task of rebuilding the devastated former Portuguese colony that Indonesia invaded in 1975.

More than 100,000 East Timorese are still in refugee camps in neighbouring West Timor. Some are afraid to go home, while others are held against their will by militia who herded them into the camps in September.

Sone militiamen are attacking international troops from their bases in the western part of the island, with the Indonesian military either unable or unwilling to disarm them.

Annan will visit both West and East Timor on Feb. 17 and 18 and is expected to tell the refugees it is safe to return, Eckhard said. But Timorese leaders also expect him to raise the issue in Jakarta, although diplomats say he will tread carefully in apportioning blame.

Annan may also be questioned about a U.N. tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the mayhem, a recommendation by a team of U.N. human rights experts who doubted Wahid's government would have the freedom to mount trials. U.N. officials and diplomats believe Indonesia must first be given the opportunity to prosecute those responsible.

Only U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke warned publicly that if Jakarta could not deal with the perpetrators, pressure would mount for such a tribunal.

From Timor, Annan goes to Australia from Feb. 18 to 21 and to New Zealand a day later. Annan is expected to thank Australia for sending thousands of troops to East Timor in September to stop the killings, looting and burnings. He has admitted that U.N. peacekeepers would have taken months longer to organise.-Reuters