Subject: Today's meeting in Dili
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 19:18:49 +1000
From: gheard@surf.net.au (Geoffrey Heard) MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release: 7.15 pm
AEST, Sunday 28/6/98
EU ambassadors meet people power in Dili
SYDNEY: Riot police backed down in Dili today when thousands of East Timorese students
and men, women and children from Dili city and surrounding villages took to the streets
shouting "Viva Timor, Viva Portugal" in a massive anti-Indonesian demonstration.
The student organisers summoned Manuel Carrascalão, leader of the Movement for
Reconciliation and Unity for the Liberation of East Timor, to head the march from the
university back to his own home in a show of strength for the benefit of a delegation of
European Union ambassadors scheduled to meet there with the Movement leadership.
As the delegation, comprising the ambassadors from Britain, the Netherlands and
Austria, arrived at the meeting, they heard an impassioned plea for freedom from
oppression from the chanting East Timorese bearing placards and banners reading
"Indonesia out, Portugal inŠuntil we are ready".
The meeting was scheduled for an hour before lunch, but stretched to six, including a
spontaneous lunch with hundreds of Movement supporters. Speakers begged the European Union
to help rid East Timor of the Indonesia and its army. They said they wanted a Portuguese
and international administration to take over until Portugal had completed the
decolonisation process and East Timor was in a position to determine its own future. At
the end, the British ambassador assured the gathering that he and his colleagues would
report in full on what they had seen and heard in Dili. Tonight, the streets of Dili are
calm. One Movement supporter was shot dead early yesterday in a clash between a Movement
group and a pro-Indonesian group of soldiers, Javanese settlers and East Timorese
reportedly preparing an attack on Bishop Ximenes Belo.
Two other Movement supporters were reported stabbed to death in other clashes, and an
unsuccessful stabbing attack was made on Manuel Carrascalão when he went to Dili airport
to welcome the European Union delegation. In Sydney, the world President of the Timorese
Democratic Union (UDT) party, João Carrascalão, this afternoon applauded the Dili
demonstrators, saying they were showing the world the determination of ordinary East
Timorese to rid themselves of Indonesian oppression. MOREŠ EAST TOMORESE PEOPLE
POWERŠ2
He said UDT fully supported the call by the Movement for the removal of Indonesian
troops and a period of Portuguese and international Administration to complete the
decolonisation process. Mr Carrascalão said UDT would be lobbying the United Nations, the
European Union and individual nations to win support for removal of Indonesian troops from
East Timor, the completion of decolonisation process by Portugal, and self-determination
for East Timorese.
Tonight, João Carrascalão was flying to New York for meetings on the East Timor issue
at the United Nations. FURTHER INFORMATION: João Carrascalão, President, UDT % 0418 767
101 Issued on behalf of UDT by Geoffrey Heard & Associates Melbourne, AUSTRALIA - %
+61 3 9583 0788
Geoffrey Heard MarketNOW Marketing - PR - Advertising that sells like crazy. Tel: +61 3
9583 0788 Email: gheard@surf.net.au |
