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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: JOSE ANTONIO BASTO <jb00@lehigh.edu>
- Subject: East Timor & The U.N.
- Message-ID: <1992Dec11.204422.25655@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: Lehigh University
- Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 20:44:22 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 137
-
- II.6 - The international position of East Timor (*)
-
- This is a synopsis of the presentation done by
- Professor Adriano Moreira, President of the Oriental
- Studies Centre of the Lisbon's Society of Geography,
- and Parliamentarian of CDS, Centro Democra'tico e Social,
- Christian Democrat [ Centre Social Democratic Party.]
-
- _______
- (*) This synopsis, as all the others, was dom by the coordinator of
- this Seminar, based on the presentation and trying to use as many quotations
- as possible. Professor Adriano Moreira reminds us that the United Nations had
- considered ever since 1961, all Portuguese overseas territories (including
- Timor) as non-autonomous regions. Even the Portuguese Republic, after the
- 1974 Revolution assumed its statute of administering power, under the
- international regime of Trust Territory. Although a fully detailed agreement
- has not been celebrated "it is obvious and unrefutable that the relations
- between the United Nations, the Portuguese Republic and Timor are being
- developed under a typical relation of Trust Territory with Portugal acting
- under mandate from the international community."
-
- section # 11
-
- PART-II
-
- 2nd SEMINAR ON EAST TIMOR, PORTO UNIVERSITY, PORTUGAL, 1990
-
- "EAST-TIMOR, LAND OF HOPE"
-
- II. -EAST TIMOR, INDONESIA, AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD
- GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION: PROSPECTS FOR EVOLUTION
- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
-
- "The Timor issue is simultaneously a problem for the
- Portuguese national conscience and an embarrassment for the
- lack of such a conscience, as far as the interests of the big powers
- are concerned. Those interests are still hiding behind the so often
- invoked communist danger".(...)
-
- "Indonesia's regime as the aggression power (...) is one of the
- rare examples of a State of National Security: the army is in
- power and the enemy is identified as communist. It had an history
- of failed and inconsequent liberalization attempts, assuming a
- need for security against aggression that is perceived as
- potentially coming from external sanctuaries."
-
- When trying to take over the Western Papua New Guinea
- (...)"Indonesia proclaimed to submit to the rule of colonial self-
- determination"(...) publicly rejecting any potential claims over
- the then Portuguese Timor, in order to consolidate its claims over
- New Guinea [Irian Jaya.]. "Having won its prize, does not hesitate
- to make incursions into Papua New Guinea, independent since
- 1975, in hot pursuit of Irian insurgents."(...)
-
- "It also invoked the usual enemy of the State of national security
- at the time of the revolutionary Portuguese decolonisation for
- East Timor, pointing to the danger of becoming a sanctuary or a
- focal point, according to the modal form the guerrilla might
- assume. Everything could be considered to be a normal police
- activity, without any support of international law but solely
- based upon security interests. Even an abusive police case does
- not imply territorial gains, as it was the case of the occupation
- [of Timor.]"
-
-
- _______
- (*) This synopsis, as all the others, was dom by the coordinator of
- this
- Seminar, based on the presentation and trying to use as many
- quotations as possible.
- Professor Adriano Moreira reminds us that the United Nations had
- considered ever since 1961, all Portuguese overseas territories
- (including Timor) as non-autonomous regions. Even the
- Portuguese Republic, after the 1974 Revolution assumed its
- statute of administering power, under the international regime of
- Trust Territory. Although a fully detailed agreement has not been
- celebrated "it is obvious and unrefutable that the relations
- between the United Nations, the Portuguese Republic and Timor
- are being developed under a typical relation of Trust Territory
- with Portugal acting under mandate from the international
- community."
-
- "Of the many functions and powers entrusted to the United
- Nations' General Assembly and to its Custodial Council (article
- 87) is "to enable periodic visits to Trust Territories on the dates
- agreed with the administering power. Nothing on its [UN]
- Charter allows for one of its members to totally boycott the full
- implementation of the decolonisation programme. Quite the
- contrary, any act against such objective violates the [United
- Nations'] Charter and gives authority to the Security Council to
- act upon it. It seems very hard to prove that a genocide is not a
- generalized aggression, because it clearly is a crime against
- humanity.
-
- "This brief explanation purports only to recommend a total
- repudiation of the current international process that wants to
- consider the question of Timor as merely a problem between
- Indonesia and Portugal, trying to bring an end to the dispute
- between the old colonial power and the invader.
-
- "Portugal can only (...) exercise its limited powers as
- administering nation, acting on behalf of the world interests
- vested upon the action of the United Nations. UN has the sole and
- direct responsibility for decolonisation, for the repudiation of
- the aggression, for the fight against genocide and other crimes
- against humanity.
-
- "We cannot allow it to alienate its intervention and
- responsibility into a totally unjustifiable form of mediation
- between Portugal and Indonesia. The UN is not a mediator, it's the
- direct holder of an interest: self-determination; of an
- international responsibility: peace; and is forced to try to
- restore the independence of subjugated people and to reject
- military conquest.
-
- "It is illegitimate to consider this to be a question between
- Portugal and Indonesia. It is a question between Indonesia and the
- international community represented on behalf of the UN, by an
- administering power whose incapacity is not its own but of the
- community on whose behalf is acting upon.
-
- "The people of Timor counts on Portugal to fulfil all its
- administering obligations, but cannot acquit the international
- community here represented by UN of its fundamental
- responsabilities".
- [end]
-
- --
- ******************
- *
- * "Tudo o que e', assenta em tudo o que foi."
- * Ano'nimo
- *
- * Jose' Barros BASTO; Address:11,Duh Dr Apt 222; BETHLEHEM, PA 18015-3732
- * Phone :(215)758-1846; Office:(215)758-4640; FAX:(215)758-4886 U.S.A.
-
-