Or could this go back to being an Asian problem? At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in New Zealand, Bill Clinton said he was considering offering logistical and technical support and a "limited" number of U.S. troops to an East Timorese peacekeeping mission. With the economic summit doubling as an international war room, Indonesia's senior economics minister, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, told reporters that fellow Southeast Asians should be given the first chance to participate in any peacekeeping force. "We, of course, would like to see more ASEAN participation," he said, and there are no shortage of volunteers -- the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia have all offered peacekeepers independent of the ASEAN banner. Whatever the international community can work out now that Habibie has dropped his Milosevic act (note that Kartasasmita stopped short of demading to set the composition of the force), it had better hurry. If Kosovo taught anybody anything, it's that nothing excites murderers more than a deadline.
Habibie: Bring 'Em In
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Calling the ravages in East Timor "of a psychological nature more than a military nature," Indonesian president B.J. Habibie threw up his hands Sunday and announced he would accept international peacekeepers in the violence-torn would-be nation. "Too many people have lost their lives, their homes and security since the beginning of the conflict," Habibie said in a nationally telecast address from the presidential palace in Jakarta. "We cannot wait any longer to stop this suffering." The long-awaited relent drew praise from both U.N. chief Kofi Annan and just-released East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao, but the march of the blue helmets hardly seems likely to end East Timor's decades-old problems and stop its tugging at the West's conscience. What's more likely is a brand new set of headaches.