Subject: Indonesia says no house arrest plan for
Gusmao
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 00:26:06 -0000
From: "Paula Pinto" <paularoque@mail.telepac.pt>Indonesia says no house
arrest plan for Gusmao 08:04 a.m. Jan 21, 1999 Eastern
JAKARTA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Jailed East Timor separatist leader Xanana Gusmao will stay
in prison and not be transfered to house arrest, Justice Minister Muladi said on Thursday.
He told the private SCTV television network that a convict could not serve a jail term
outside jail. ``There is no such law in Indonesia,'' he said.
The Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted resistance leader Joao Carrascalao as saying in
Australia this week that an Indonesian official had made the house arrest offer to Gusmao
in Jakarta's Cipinang prison, where he is serving a 20-year sentence.
Carrascalao said Gusmao was prepared to accept the offer, although he did not say if
Jakarta had set any conditions.
Gusmao was jailed in 1992 for resistance to Indonesia's rule in the former Portuguese
colony of East Timor.
Indonesia has faced armed resistance in East Timor since its invasion in 1975. It
annexed the territory of 800,000 people in 1976 in a move not recognised by the United
Nations.
The official Antara news agency said a native East Timorese soldier was killed on
Sunday in the latest separatist attack against the military.
It said private Marchal Ximenes was shot dead by four men at a village in the Viqueque
district, east of the capital Dili. ###
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