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Subject: RT: Students supend protests
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 09:50:58 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <etan@etan.org>
East Timor students suspend anti-Indonesia rallies
DILI, East Timor, June 15 (Reuters) - Students in East Timor said on Monday they would suspend demonstrations demanding a referendum on independence from Indonesian rule and would wait for the outcome from talks with regional legislators.
Students held talks with East Timor's regional council and Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo on Monday morning.
``We will temporarily stop this open debate forum, while waiting for the results of our talks with the regional council and the bishop,'' student leader Antero Benedito da Silva told about 200 students shouting ``Viva Timor Leste (East Timor)'' who gathered at the East Timor University compound on Monday.
Open forum is the term used by the students to describe their anti-Indonesia protests. It was unclear how long the students were prepared to wait for the results.
East Timorese students held several demonstrations in Dili last week and also occupied the grounds of Indonesia's foreign ministry in Jakarta until being driven out by baton-wielding troops.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 after the collapse of Portugal's colonial authority, and annexed it the following year in a move not recognised by the United Nations. It still faces armed resistance by about 200 guerrillas hiding in the territory's forests and mountains.
END