NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5457

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Timor: ETAN/US Petitition to Decol'n Commission
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/** reg.easttimor: 349.0 **/
** Topic: ETAN/US Petitition to Decol Comm. **
** Written  9:49 pm  Jul 28, 1992 by cscheiner in cdp:reg.easttimor **
Statement to the United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with
Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples

by the East Timor Action Network / United States
PO Box 1182, White Plains, NY 10602 USA.  Tel. [phone]   fax [phone]
presented by Charles Scheiner
United Nations, New York July 27, 1992

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the committee and guests, my name
is Charles Scheiner, and I am coordinator of the East Timor Action
Network / United States. ETAN/US is grateful for the opportunity to speak
with you today, and for your continued attention to the situation in East
Timor. We will try not to repeat others' statements, but to supplement
them.

The East Timor Action Network was formed at the beginning of this year.
Several of us had been aware of the ongoing tragedy of East Timor, but
despaired that people there would ever be allowed to determine their own
political future. We were shaken and moved by the horrendous Santa Cruz
massacre in Dili last November 12. In a manner never seen before, there
were foreign witnesses and videotape to document the inhuman brutality of
the Indonesian military for the outside world. If East Timor was ever to
be free of Jakarta's oppression, the time to act was now.

We created the East Timor Action Network/U.S. as a grassroots movement to
help change American, international, and ultimately Indonesian policy on
East Timor. We hope that the Special Committee on Decolonization and the
other organs of United Nations share our understanding that the present
moment carries both opportunity and responsibility. We urge you to act
now to support human rights and self-determination for the East Timorese
people, and not to prolong their 17 years of suffering and struggle. ETAN
struck a chord in the United States: in six months we have local chapters
in a dozen cities, and several hundred members in more than half of the
fifty states.

Members of the United States Congress, continuing their record of concern
for East Timor, are taking unprecedented action. In November and
December, both houses passed strong resolutions against human rights
violations in East Timor, and 52 Senators signed a letter to President
Bush initiated by Republican Malcolm Wallop, urging the President to seek
a diplomatic resolution of the situation. In May, Representative Tony
Hall and other Congresspeople from both parties introduced H.R.5176,
which would suspend military and economic aid, arms sales, and trade
preferences to Indonesia until it allows human rights observers into East
Timor and complies with U.N. resolutions requiring military withdrawal
and a plebiscite for self-determination.

On June 25, the House of Representatives unanimously voted to terminate
U.S. military training for the Indonesian armed forces under the
International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which has
trained more than 2,600 Indonesian officers since 1975. Under IMET,
roughly 150 Indonesian officers have attended U.S. war colleges every
year. The U.S. Senate will soon act on the IMET cut, and may well take
even stronger action to protest ongoing repression in East Timor.

Although last month's vote is the first time the U.S. Congress has cut
aid to Indonesia, it builds on a long history of bipartisan Congressional
concern. That concern continues to expand; in fact, several
Representatives took the floor during the discussion of the IMET
suspension to warn Indonesia that this is only the beginning.

On June 21, the United States Conference of Mayors (which includes the
chief executives of every city in the United States) passed a resolution
on human rights in East Timor, urging the President and Congress to
support General Assembly action to "assist in the resolution of the
conflict, providing for the self-determination of the Timorese people."

I go into detail on developments in the United States because the views
conveyed by President Bush's administration to the international
community do not always accurately reflect what is happening in this
country. Although Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz referred to
the "unfinished business" of the Santa Cruz massacre during his recent
visit to Jakarta, Americans have the uneasy feeling that the White House
and the Pentagon are reluctant to strongly pressure Indonesia to resolve
the situation. We look hopefully toward the upcoming election in the
United States, but we hope that your Committee will not wait until then
to take action.

Mr. Chairman, I am not going to give you a long list of recommendations
from the East Timor Action Network. We concur with the suggestions from
other NGO's that the report of Special Envoy Amos Wako be released and
that the Secretary-General facilitate negotiations including Indonesia,
Portugal, and representatives of the Timorese people, leading to self-
determination for East Timor. We also urge this Committee to recommend
that the General Assembly act this fall to reaffirm its decade-old
resolutions calling for human rights and immediate Indonesian withdrawal
from East Timor.

We do, however, want to share with you the urgent appeal presented by the
National Movement of the East Timorese Students in Indonesia to the
United Nations mission in Jakarta last November 19. Many of the
presenters of this appeal were arrested; some have been sentenced to as
long as ten years in prison for peacefully appealing to the international
community to safeguard their human rights. I hope you will pay close
attention to these translated words from young Timorese patriots who
sacrificed their freedom to convey them to you:

Because:

1.      The invasion of East Timor by Indonesia was a flagrant violation of
the General Assembly of the United Nations Resolution 3485 (12 December
1975) and of the UN Security Council Resolution 384 (22 December 1975),
which recognize the inalienable right of all peoples to
self-determination and independence, according to the principles of the
United Nations Charter and the Declaration of the Colonized Countries and
Peoples in Resolution 1514 (XV) of December 14 1960;

2.      Resolution 384 of 22 December 1975 by the UN Security Council
appeals to all states to respect the Territorial Integrity of East Timor;

3.      The above resolutions appeal to the Indonesian Government for the
immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all forces from East Timor;

4.      The very same resolutions recognize Portugal as the administrative
power;

5.      The similarity of the invasion and occupation of East Timor by
Indonesia with that of Kuwait by Iraq;

6.      The struggles of the people of Namibia and the Western Sahara, which
are similar to that of Maubere People (East Timorese), have attained
their national political goals;

7.      The enforced presence of Indonesia in East Timor for the last 16
years is, in the light of the International Principles, illegal and
obsolete according to the dynamic evolution for the Human Society;

8.      The enforced presence of Indonesia in East Timor escalates day by
day the suffering of the already martyred Maubere People through
conscious, systematic and routine violation of the most elementary Human
Rights.

We, the East Timor Nationalist Students in Indonesia, in our own name and
that of all those Heroes innocently felled by the Indonesian military
assassins over the last 16 years, but mainly our brethren who were
cruelly and inhumanely killed en masse on November 12 1991, ask and
demand of the United Nations:

1.      a) To maintain strong and continuous pressure on Indonesia so that
all efficient measures can be taken to carry out the General Assembly and
Security Council resolutions which have already been voted upon and that
recognize the right of the East Timorese people to Self-Determination and
Independence;

     b) According to those above mentioned UN General Assembly and Security
Council resolutions, Indonesia, as a member of that Organisation, has no
right to try and condemn all East Timor nationalists who have arduously
fought for their Right of Self-Determination and Independence;

2.      To exert strong political, economical and mainly military pressures
on the Jakarta government as is happening with  Iraq;

3.      To demand of Indonesia an absolute respect for the Fundamental
Rights of the East Timorese People and their identity as a People and as
a Nation;

4.      To demand that Indonesia immediately and unconditionally withdraw
all its belligerently repressive apparatus, be it military or
bureaucratic, from East Timor;

5.      To demand the Portuguese Government as the Administrative Power to
co-operate fully with the United Nations in order to create the
conditions for the People of East Timor to enjoy freely their Right to
Self Determination and Independence;

6.      Finally, and in conclusion, our Petition and Protest for the
Genocide barbarously perpetrated by the Indonesia army on 12th November
1991. We ask the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to take
urgent, and efficient measures to safeguard the lives of all those
Timorese Nationalists, mainly the political prisoners;

7.      We request U.N. representatives in Jakarta, together with the
Indonesian Parliament, to issue safe-conduct papers to guarantee the
personal security of all Timorese Nationalist Students who are under
coercive resistance in Indonesia. Trusting that Your Excellency will do
your best to consider and identify yourself with our aspirations and
wishes as a People and a Nation, we are, yours sincerely,

Joao Freitas da Camara (Jakarta)
Agapito Cardoso (Bali)
Jose Luis de Oliveira (Yogyakarta)
Domingos Bareto de Jesus Vas (Semarang)
Virgilio da Silva Guterres (Malang)
Jose Dias Quintas (Surabaya)
Gregorio de Araujo (Bandung)

Nearly all of the 70 students who presented this appeal were arrested.
Seventeen were imprisoned for four months before being released without
charges. Five were put on trial, although they refused to accept the
jurisdiction of Indonesia's courts. At the trial of Agapito Cardoso,
co-defendant Joao Freitas da Camara denied that the demonstration was
planned to hurt the government, but said that "We could not stay inactive
while our brothers were being shot dead. We wanted to protest against all
the actions in East Timor which were not in accordance with human rights
from the beginning until the tragedy of November 12."

For helping to organize this peaceful appeal, Fernando de Araujo received
a nine-year prison sentence. Joao Freitas da Camara got ten years, and
three others got sentences of up to 30 months. None were accused of any
violent activities or any actions which could be considered illegal if
Indonesia honored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- all they
did was appeal to the international community to live up to its
previously-expressed findings.

Mr. Chairman, the past year has shown that there is a new generation of
East Timorese activists, infants at the time of the Indonesian invasion,
who are willing to risk all for their independence. Your Committee and
the United Nations have the power to end the 17-year nightmare of the
Timorese people, to begin a process which will spare these idealistic
youth from the horrible hell that was inflicted on their parents'
generation. I hope you will use it.

Thank you.



** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **