Subject: AFP: Indonesia suspends sending settlers to
E. Timor
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 09:23:40 +0000
From: Tapol <plovers@gn.apc.org>Received from Joyo
Indonesia suspends sending settlers to East Timor
JAKARTA, Dec 15 (AFP) - Jakarta has decided to temoprarily suspend the sending of
Indonesian settlers to the troubled territory of East Timor under a government-sponsored
"transmigration" program, a press report said Tuesday.
Jakarta-appointed East Timor Governor Jose Osorio Abilio Soares was quoted by the
Kompas daily as saying that the resettlement program will be halted because of the
political "situation and conditions" in East Timor.
"Since this program was launched, migrants from outside East Timor have year in,
year out, suffered from pressure, terror and intimidation," Soares said, adding that
some migrants had even been shot by pro-independence rebels in Lospalos, at the eastern
tip of East Timor.
He said the migrants' efforts to resettle there were also repeatedly hampered by
political unrest and extortion and terror by "local individuals."
"This is not related to the issue of ethnicity, religion, race and culture but it
is because the political status of East Timor is not yet settled," he said.
Abilio gave no figure on the number of transmigrants resettled in East Timor so far,
but in 1989 the figure was put officially at some 500 families.
The program aims to move out millions of Indonesians from the densely populated islands
of Java, Bali and Madura to the less-populated outer islands.
Indonesia annexed the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1976 after its troops
invaded it the previous year but the United Nations continues to view Lisbon as the
official administrator there.
A pro-independence movement has been providing armed resistance against the Indonesian
presence since 1975.
Tension between migrants, mostly Moslems, and the predominatly Christian population of
East Timor, has flared several times in the past, leading to the destruction of
Moslem-owned businesses and mosques there.
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, 25 Plovers Way, Alton Hampshire GU34 2JJ
Tel/Fax: 1420 80153 Email: plovers@gn.apc.org Defending victims of oppression in
Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh, 1973-1998
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