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Reg.Easttimor News Summaries 03 March - 09 March 1998

CONTENTS
1. Economy Poses Threat to Dictator's Iron Rule
2. Thai Police Threaten to Ban East Timor Conference
3. Media Release
4. The rain comes late to East Timor this year.
5. Last of the Southeast Asian cold war tyrants
6. Shroud of secrecy on Asian Cultural Forum
7. HEALTH CARE IN EAST TIMOR
8. Possible arbitrary arrest/Fear of torture
9. Press Release
10. Third Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor
11. Aust-based rights group slams Thai govt over E.Timor
12. A challenge to the cause of peace
13. Women and Armed Conflict
14. UNTIM Students go on Trial
15. Three alleged Timorese activists arrested in Dili
16. Conference on East Timor supports UN's Initiative
17. Six leave to Portugal
18. Germany's Foreign Minister appeals for human rights.
19. Calls for ASEAN involvement in East Timor issue.
20. Student leader appeals for Timorese unity.
21. Movement for Indonesian Renewal, GPI
 

1. Subject: Economy Poses Threat to Dictator's Iron Rule
Date: 03/03/98
Source: Rocky Mountain News
Summary: Army generals are heavily involved in banking and business,
as are Suharto's family and friends. Their monopolies are partly to
blame for the latest financial crisis that has seen Indonesia's
currency, the rupiah, lose 75 per cent of its value since last
summer.
The International Monetary Fund has pledged $43 billion in bailout
money if Suharto enacts economic reforms. But it may be too late.
The government is suspected of condoning -- even instigating -- a
certain amount of ethnic and religious unrest to deflect blame for its
economic performance. But no one is fooled.
Even the tame parliament is acting less tame. Certain Muslim
legislators have reminded Suharto that if he fails to solve the
current crisis, "there is a mechanism for the president to return his
mandate to the People's Consultative Assembly.'' That means stepping
down.
It is something Suharto will never do willingly.

2. Subject: Thai Police Threaten to Ban East Timor Conference
Date: 03/03/98
Source: The Nation
Summary: POLICE Monday limited the participation of international
human-rights advocates in a two-day seminar on East Timor in Bangkok,
saying the foreign participants would violate Thai law if they spoke
out against Indonesia.
Foreign Ministry officials earlier tried to prevent the
International Symposium on the Peaceful Settlement for East Timor
(Peace-Set) from taking place for fear of offending Indonesia as
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was visiting Jakarta Monday.
A dozen officials from the Labour Ministry, Special Branch Police
and Immigration police of the Interior Ministry closely watched
the participants.
Two Indonesian Embassy officials were also attending the seminar
in a private capacity.

3. Subject: Media Release
Date: 03/03/98
Source: Initiatives for International Dialogue, 02/03/98
Summary: Representatives of the Thai organizers of the International
Symposum on Peaceful Settlement for East Timor (PEACE-SET) spent the
first day of the Symposium negotiating with the police and labour
ministry to avoid arrest of up to 50 foreign participants attending
the meeting.
According to the authorities, all foreigners must possess a work
permit to take part in any conference in Thailand. Representative of
the Thai organizing committee of PEACE-SET, Mr. Somchai Homla-or, said
that the labour inspectors threatened that any foreigner who spoke
during the conference would be considered as working and would be in
violation of labour laws and should be in possession of a work permit.
Fifty foreign participants from fourteen countries including an MP
from Japan, and participants from Australia, New Zealand, Portugal,
Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, USA, Holland, Finland, Sri Lanka, Nepal
and Indonesia are attending the two day conference in Bangkok.
Police demanded that the Thai organizers of PEACE-SET sign a
statement guaranteeing that no foreigners will speak during the
meeting. After refusing to sign the statement, the organizers were
told to be prepared for the foreign participants to be arrested
tomorrow.

4. Subject: The rain comes late to East Timor this year.
Date: 03/03/98
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Summary: An account of a journey through East Timor.

5. Subject: Last of the Southeast Asian cold war tyrants
Date: 04/03/98
Source: The Nation
Summary: Prof Benedict Anderson discusses Indonesia's future.

6. Subject: Shroud of secrecy on Asian Cultural Forum
Date: 04/03/98
Source: Bangkok Post
Summary: A two-day conference on East Timor concluded here yesterday
with restricted participation by foreign solidarity groups following
close monitoring from police and labour department officials.
On the first day, the officials demanded work permits from the 50
foreign participants on grounds that they were attending a working
event. On the second day, the officials prevented several foreign
participants from speaking at the forum.
The harassment prompted the Asian Cultural Forum on Development,
organisers of a follow-up conference set for today and tomorrow
[poster's note: This is officially APCET III] to throw a shroud of
secrecy on the venue of their meeting.

7. Subject: HEALTH CARE IN EAST TIMOR
Date: 04/03/98
Source: Comissao para os Direitos do Povo Maubere
Summary: The idea of a doctor being a person dedicated to medicine
with a vocation to serve humanity is very obscure in Indonesia, where
to become a doctor there is to opt for a way to get rich quick.
Health programmes are almost exclusively in the hands of the
Government.
There are occasions, especially in posts where there are no army
doctors, when this close relationship between doctors and the
military is not solely due to their common ethnic and cultural
backgrounds. The civilian doctor is often called out by the military
to examine the victims of beatings and torture carried out by
soldiers. The doctor is the one who advises whether the victim is
dead, and whether s/he may continue to be tortured. Sometimes the
doctor even resuscitates unconscious prisoners after severe beatings
so that the torture may continue.
Lack of water (a problem common to all rural areas in Indonesia)
is an even more critical problem in Timor where, for military
reasons, wide expanses of forest are burned every year at the start
of the rainy season!
Just as in all other aspects of social life, the corruption that
is rife throughout Indonesia also plays a key role in the sphere of
health care. Many health reports are untrue, and many health projects
are purely fictitious.
Women are told that they are being injected with vitamins, while
IUDs are fitted during a vaginal examinations. Information about
the possible adverse side effects of contraceptive drugs and devices
is never provided, so as "not to frighten the ignorant population".

8. Subject: Possible arbitrary arrest/Fear of torture
Date: 04/03/98
Source: Amnesty International
Summary: Amnesty International has just been informed that Rui
Campus, a 20-year-old East Timorese student, who was arrested in late
January (precise date unknown), remains in incommunicado detention in
Los Palos. It is not known if any charges have been brought against
him. His family have been refused access to him and he has not yet
seen a lawyer heightening concerns that he may be at risk of torture
or ill-treatment, a common occurrence in East Timor.
Rui Campus was arrested in Asalainu village, where he lives, by
members of Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces command. According
to reports he was hit in the mouth during his arrest. He was then
taken to the Kopassus head quarters in Los Palos where he is still
believed to be. The precise reason for his arrest is not known
though it is thought to be linked to an incident in the village two
or three days earlier in which Rui Campus tried to defend the
village head from being hit by Kopassus troops present in the
village.

9. Subject: Press Release
Date: 05/03/98
Source: ETISC Australia
Summary: (To Thai foreign minister) In a bid to prevent the
conference from proceeding, the Thai Labour Department has demanded
that foreign speakers produce work-permits before they address
delegates. The police has also threatened to arrest the Thai
organisers of both the International Symposium and APCET for defying
police orders in going ahead with both meetings. Police and
intelligence officers are insisting on being present at the APCET
conference and organisers fear proceedings, today and tomorrow, may
be disrupted.
It is indeed sad and worrying that Thailand, which is
admired in the West for its openness and democratic credentials, is
willing to cave in to Indonesia -- a country led by a dictator, which
the international community, now, is trying to distance themselves
from.
Your Excellency, East Timor is not an issue that is new to
you. When you were a journalist in the late 1970s, your report of the
famine in East Timor was followed up by major publications in the
region. You are fully aware of the tragedy taking place in that
territory, and for the need for a true solution to this protracted
problem to be found. Continuing to ignore it, pretending it does not
exist, as Jakarta tries to do, is not in the interests of any one,
not even of Indonesia.

10. Subject: Third Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor
Date: 06/03/98
Source: Charles Scheiner
Summary: Conference Statement (full text)

11. Subject: Aust-based rights group slams Thai govt over E.Timor
Date: 06/03/98
Source: Agence France Presse, 05/03/98
Summary: An Australia-based East Timor lobby group today slammed
the Thai government for obstructing a Bangkok peace
conference on East Timor earlier this week.
In an open letter to Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, the
East Timor International Support Centre, based in Darwin,
criticised Thailand for caving in to Indonesian pressure by
harassing conference members.
The letter, signed by the group's executive director Juan
Federer, said the reaction of the Thai government to the conference
was evidence of weakness in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
"Because of its size and lack of democratic credentials,
Indonesia is a millstone on the rest of ASEAN, especially when the
grouping is struggling to restore foreign investors in the region,"
the statement said.

12. Subject: A challenge to the cause of peace.
Date: 06/03/98
Source: Bangkok Post, 05/03/98
Summary: The campaign to obstruct a conference about a peaceful
settlement for East Timor has been a dismal and embarrassing
spectacle that calls into question the progressive credentials of our
political leaders. Their actions have demonstrated that the cause of
peace in a territory brutalised by an occupation condemned by the
United Nations is not a worthy one. Freedom of speech is all very
well so long as no unpleasant words are directed at those the
government wants to shield from criticism.

13. Subject: Women and Armed Conflict
Date: 07/03/98
Source: The Asian and Pacific Development Centre
Summary: A report by (APDC) Gender and Development Programme for the
The Asica-Pacific Network on Refugee Women and Women in Situation of
Armed Conflict.
Ceu Brites from East Timor Relief Assocation (ETRA) and Alice
Casimiro from LAFAEK Assn. (Darwin, Northern Territory) attended the
above (post-Beijing consultation held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 13-16
October 1997). I am attaching the the full report for dissemination as
widely as possible.

14. Subject: UNTIM Students go on Trial
Date: 07/03/98
Source: Tapol, 12/03/98
Summary: Six students of the University of East Timor have gone on
trial on charges of 'torturing' three members of the armed forces.
The trial commenced on 11 February.
The opening session of the trial was attended by a large number of
UNTIM students, causing the security forces to put on extra personnel.
The roads leading to the courthouse were closed to all vehicles,
including motorbikes.

15. Subject: Three alleged Timorese activists arrested in Dili
Date: 07/03/98
Source: Lusa, 05/03/98
Summary: Three alleged Timorese activists were
arrested in Dili by the Indonesian authorities on 26 February,
Indonesian news agency Antara said on Wednesday.
Quoting police sources, Antara said that the authorities had found
some 420 explosive devices in the house where the activists were
arrested as well as diaries that allegedly linked them to an
underground group supporting the territory's self-determination
resistance movement.

16. Subject: Conference on East Timor supports UN's Initiative
Date: 07/03/98
Source: Lusa, 04/03/98
Summary: The participants in an international conference on East
Timor being held in Bangkok expressed on Tuesday their support to the
efforts by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to find a peaceful
solution for the territory.
In the resolution, aimed at the international community, the
governments of the Association of Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN)
and the solidarity movement with the East Timorese cause, the
participants urged the United States, the European Union and Japan to
promote a peaceful solution for the troubled pacific territory.

17. Subject: Six leave to Portugal
Date: 07/03/98
Source: Lusa, 04/03/98
Summary: A group of six Timorese who had sought refuge
at the Spanish embassy three weeks ago left Indonesia to Portugal on
Tuesday, the Portuguese Red Cross announced.
For the past six months, another group of six Timorese has
remained inside the Austrian embassy because the Indonesian
authorities have refused to let them leave to Portugal.

18. Subject: Germany's Foreign Minister appeals for human rights.
Date: 07/03/98
Source: Lusa, 03/03/98
Summary: Germany's Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called on
Monday for the "respect of human rights" and "improvement of life
conditions" in East Timor following a meeting with Bishop D. Ximenes
Belo and activist Jose Ramos Horta.
The German Foreign Ministry said in statement that during the
meeting with the two 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureates, Kinkel had
called for a "global and acceptable solution" for East Timor through
"dialogue".

19. Subject: Calls for ASEAN involvement in East Timor issue.
Date: 09/03/98
Source: Lusa
Summary: The participants at the third Conference of the Asia-Pacific
Coalition for East Timor (APCET III) appealed on Friday in Bangkok
for the governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) to support a peaceful resolution of the Timorese conflict.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam that have agreed not to
interfere in the domestic affairs of the member countries.

20. Subject: Student leader appeals for Timorese unity.
Date: 09/03/98
Source: Lusa
Summary: The leader of the National Resistance of East Timorese
Students (RENETIL) in Indonesia appealed on Friday in Bangkok for
Timorese to forget their political cleavages and to remain united in
the "fight for the freedom of the homeland". In an interview to
Lusa, as he attended an international conference in the Thai capital
on the East Timor issue, the leader of the student movement who asked
to be identified as "Russuo", praised the "goodwill and efforts" of
the Portuguese government in trying to find a solution for the
troubled pacific territory. He also highlighted that Portugal's
status as East Timor's administrative power recognised by the United
Nations was "crucial to keep alive the fight" of the Timorese people.
"Russuo" said also that he did not feel any "resentments" against
the former coloniser of East Timor. He added, however, that the
Portuguese government committed in 1975 the "biggest mistake" of
leaving the territory "without completing the de-colonisation
process".

21. Subject: Movement for Indonesian Renewal, GPI
Date: 09/03/98
Source: Kabar dari PIJAR
Summary: The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) which has convened
from 1 -11 March 1998 has failed to respond to the demands of the
Indonesian people conveyed through organisations, well-known
personalities and other individuals. The session which cost no less
than Rp 45 billion, has failed to come up with satisfactory answers
to a raft of problems:
The MPR has failed to ask full accountability from the
President as the Mandate-holder, for the economic and political crisis
which has resulted in rising prices for essential goods, the loss of
jobs for millions of citizens, bankruptcy for thousands of small
businesses and numerous other consequences that have brought
catastrophe for people in urban and rural districts throughout the
country.
The MPR has shown no concern for the profound damage inflicted
on the foundations of the nation's existence and has done nothing to
remedy practices such as corruption, collusion and nepotism which
occur at virtually every level of the bureaucracy.
The MPR has turned a deaf ear to the aspirations and demands
of the people, in particular with regard to the national leadership
which has remained in the same hands for thirty years. For the seventh
time running, since 1967, the MPR has only been able to produce a
single candidate for President, retired General Suharto.


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