Subject: LUSA: Guerrilla leader says his troops will
"fight on until the independence of East Timor is Won"
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 11:22:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Sharon R.A. Scharfe" <pet@web.net>Jakarta, 04 Aug (Lusa) - East
Timor's guerrilla commander Taur Matan Ruak has vowed that his troop will "fight on
until the independence of East Timor is won." Ruak told the Associated Press in an
interview released on Monday, "We have never lost hope, we will stand frim",
stressing his guerrilla movement would continue to fight Indonesia's occupation troops in
his homeland despite new diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to East Timor.
Ruak took command of the guerrilla forces earlier this year in East Timor's mountains
where several hundred freedom fighters have waged war against the Indonesian invaders
since December 1975. Ruak's defiant statement came ahead of talks between the foreign
ministers of Indonesia and Portugal, Ali Alatas and Jaime Gama, at the United Nations in
New York this week. The talks, which will be chaired by UB Secretary General Kofi Annan,
are expected to be dominated by an offer from Indonesian President B.J. Habibie to grant
some "autonomy" to East Timor. However, Jakarta continues to reject East Timor's
right of self-determination. Indonesian withdrew some 400 of its 12,000 troops from the
half-island off northern Australia last week. Another 600 troops are scheduled to leave
this month. Ruak described the partial withdrawal as possibly just a publicity stunt.
Until now, Indonesians have never shown good faith when it comes to withdrawing their
troops, he said. The Commander of the tiny guerrilla movement called for UN supervision of
the Indonesian troop withdrawals. Ruak welcomed greater political freedoms granted by
Habibie. "You can see there are still political prisoners throughout Indonesia and
East Timor. There are still many problems to resolve, but we should be very happy with the
amount of freedom of expression, freedom of association and a free press decreed by
Habibie", he said. Meanwhile, the president of the Association of Former Political
Prisoners of East Timor (AEPPOLTI) , Roberto Jeronimo, in Lisbon on Tuesday planned to
hand a petition to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, requesting a referendum on
self-determination in East Timor and the release of imprisoned armed resistance leader
Xanana Gusmao. Jeronimo told Lusa in Lisbon on Monday he regarded Indonesia's partial
troop withdrawal from his occupied homelans as a "farce". He said his
association "totally" rejected Indonesia's proposal to grant
"autonomy" to East Timor.
Lusa/Fim
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