Subject: Ramos-Horta commends Bishop Belo
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 11:55:25 +1100
From: East Timor Relief Association <etra@pactok.net>Ramos-Horta commends Bishop
Belo on his firm stance with President Habibie
Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, the 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate, must be warmly
commended for his courage and firmness in declining an invitation for a meeting with
President B.J. Habibie because grounds the Indonesian Government has completed failed to
honour commitments made by President Habibie to Bishop Belo to improve the situation in
East Timor.
Bishop Belo met with President Habibie in June 1998 in Jakarta. In the course of the
meeting President Habibie was presented with a 13-point memorandum aiming at improving the
overall situation in East Timor, including a credible reduction of Indonesian troops.
Following the discussions Bishop Belo publicly praised President Habibie. The
Indonesian President also praised Bishop Belo as a man of "God" and promised to
implement all 13 measures.
In August this year Indonesian propaganda machinery staged an alleged withdrawal of 400
troops.
This was an extraordinary display of cynicism as in fact this alleged withdrawal was
part of a normal rotation of troops. By mid-September at least seven new battalions were
brought into East Timor.
Indonesian military documents leaked to the BBC and Sydney Morning Herald, whose
authenticity were confirmed by all western embassies in Jakarta, indicated that the
Indonesian armed forces had more than 18,000 troops in the territory.
This whilst both the Indonesian Foreign Minister Alatas and ABRI commander General
Wirianto stated that there were no more than six non-combat battalions in East Timor.
Indonesia's standard claim has been that these so called territorial troops engaged in
"civic" duties and not in military operations.
The documents also confirmed that thousands of paramilitary thugs were under Indonesian
military command structure and on its payroll.
Human rights abuses have continued since the fall of Suharto. In at least one occasion
Indonesian armed forces perpetrated a massacre of civilians in November in the town of
Alas. Two separate missions sent to the area, one by a UN Secretary General personal
envoy, and the other a joint Timorese church and the local provincial government were
denied access to Alas by the military. The latter was fired on by Indonesian forces as it
attempted to reach the town of Alas. The extent of the massacre in Alas remains to be
fully uncovered but it is feared that the number of people killed must be indeed very
high. An initial church report indicated more than 40 people killed. Dozens of houses were
destroyed.
At the United Nations sponsored talks the Indonesian Government is back-peddling on the
promises made in August 1998 by Foreign Minister Ali Alatas. In the Ministerial talks held
in NY under the
auspices of the Secretary General, Foreign Minister Alatas was quoted as promising that
as part of a settlement package of the East Timor problem even pro-independence East
Timorese Parties could contest in elections in East Timor. These elections would be
separate from the Indonesian general election, according to Foreign Minister Alatas. On
the basis of the August statement by Foreign Minister Alatas the National Council of
Timorese Resistance could enter election in East Timor on its current platform of
self-determination. In subsequent UN sponsored meetings in New York the Indonesian
delegation began to back-track.
These acts of bad faith, inflexibility, intolerance and violence in East Timor, lies
and deceit that were part of the Suharto regime for 32 years in Indonesia and 23 years in
East Timor have not changed.
It is in this context that we understand Bishop Belo's reported refusal to meet with
President Habibie. All East Timorese must rally around Bishop Belo in his dignified and
courageous stance that expose the policies of bad faith, cynicism and hypocrisy that form
part of the political culture in Indonesia.
It is President Habibie's Government and the Indonesian army that have to prove to the
East Timorese people and to the international community that the culture of lies and
deceit, the institutions of repression and intolerance belong to the past. It is
extraordinary that at a time when the Indonesian economy came crushing down under the
weight of corruption and mismanagement and half of the entire population of more than 200
million are living below the poverty line, the country barely surviving, thanks to
international good will and generosity, the Indonesian army continues to behave as if
nothing has happened, and continues to waste the limited resources of the country in a
futile war of colonial aggression.
Jose Ramos-Horta 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate
Matebian News
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