Upcoming Speaking Tours

Upcoming Speaking Tours to Feature -
José Ramos Horta, Fernando de Araujo, Yeni Rosa Damayanti

José Ramos Horta, co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, will be speaking at a number of U.S. locations over the next few months. For details on any of these, contact ETAN or his speakers’ bureau: Royce-Carlton at 212-355-7700. Dr. Ramos-Horta has campaigned tirelessly all over the world for East Timor since 1975, and is Vice President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT). He has another U.S tour planned for April 1999. For 1998, his schedule follows:

9/15: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
9/17: Hillsdale College, Michigan
10/2-3: Coalition for a Strong United Nations, Boston
10/3: Concert for East Timor at Marketplace Center, Boston
10/27: State of the World Forum, San Francisco
11/1: ETAN National Strategy Conference, Freedom, New Hampshire
11/2: New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ
11/3: Illinois State U., Normal, IL
11/4: Suffolk Community College, Brentwood, NY
11/5: U. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
11/9: Millersville U., Millersville, PA
11/9: Princeton, NJ
11/10: East Carolina U., Greenville, NC
11/11: Kettering U., Flint, MI
11/13: Gonzaga U., Spokane, WA

Fernando de Araujo will be on a speaking tour of the United States from mid-October to mid-November. For the last two week of October, ETAN will bring him to cities on the West and East Coasts. From November 1 to November 20, he will appear with Indonesian activist Yeni Rosa Damayanti, in a tour organized by Global Exchange. Contact the ETAN National office to schedule him for October, or Ken Preston at Global Exchange (ken@globalexchange.org, 415-255-7296, fax: 415-255-7498) for November.

Fernando de Araujo was a leader of RENETIL (Resistencia Nacional Estudantil de Timor Leste), the underground organization of Timorese students in Indonesia. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for helping to organize a demonstration in Jakarta a week after the November 1991 Dili massacre. Although not present at the protest, he was arrested at his home in Bali and later tortured.

Prior to his arrest, Fernando studied Indonesian literature in Bali, where he served as an important conduit of information to the outside world about conditions in East Timor, linking leaders inside East Timor, especially Xanana Gusmão, with those in exile. After Fernando and Xanana were both sent to Cipinang prison, Fernando worked even more closely with Xanana. Fernando was released from prison in March 1998 (although Xanana has another decade on his sentence).

Yeni Rosa Damayanti was an Indonesian student activist, campaigning on environmental and women's issues. After speaking at a Jakarta rally in December 1993, she served most a year in prison for "defaming the President." Shortly after her release, Yeni participated in an East Timor conference in Portugal and spent most of the next three years in semi-voluntary exile in Europe, speaking out for East Timor and for democracy in Indonesia. She returned to Indonesia in 1998, and currently works for Solidamor, an Indonesian organization promoting a referendum in East Timor. She also heads the organizing department of Perserikatan Solidaritas Perempuan, a women's organization. Yeni will be touring with Fernando in November, organized by Global Exchange (see above).