Frank blasts Berger over East Timor remark

By Melissa B. Robinson, Associated Press writer

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Barney Frank, in an unusually sharp rebuke of a Clinton administration official, warned National Security Adviser Sandy Berger that ignoring the situation in East Timor could erode congressional support for foreign policy.

"Ignoring the butchery that is going on in Indonesia is not only morally wholly without justification, it will have negative consequences for your foreign policy," Frank, D-Mass., said in a message to Berger on Thursday.

Frank was upset at Berger's remark Wednesday that his daughter "has a very messy apartment up in college. Maybe I shouldn't intervene to have that cleaned up."

Frank said that, "no matter what the intent, references to your daughter having a messy room in the context of the slaughter raging in Indonesia are gravely inappropriate.

"The administration's lack of moral commitment on this issue leaves me far less inclined to be supportive of foreign policy initiatives that you may take than I had previously been," said Frank, a liberal who is generally supportive of the administration, with a few notable exceptions. He has spoken out, for instance, for far less military spending than Clinton supports.

Meanwhile, a New Bedford, Mass., legislator also says he is deeply concerned with the atrocities in East Timor.

State Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford, who has been a leader in the East Timor issue in the commonwealth, has forwarded letters to the Massachusetts congressional delegation and to President Clinton expressing his concern. The representative also has spoken to several Congress members.

In his letter to President Clinton, Rep. Cabral wrote, "I ... respectfully request that your administration take decisive action to resolve the East Timor Atrocity. As a leading democracy, we should not only speak words of condemnation but must also act. We must not, as you elegantly said when addressing the Rwanda genocide, be slow to act after the killing has begun. We need to increase our vigilance and strengthen our stand against those who commit atrocities and if necessary stop it."

In East Timor, militia gangs opposed to independence ransacked the capital of Dili this week, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The violence followed a vote Monday in which East Timorese chose to split from Indonesia, which annexed the former Portuguese colony nearly 25 years ago.

The United States treaded softly until Thursday -- wary of dealing too harshly with an emerging democracy and of upsetting Indonesia's fragile economic progress.

On Thursday, Clinton suspended relations with Indonesia's military and threatened to suspend economic assistance to Indonesia if it continues to resist East Timor's "clear, unambiguous" desire for independence.