NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9345

Text File | 1992-12-15 | 3.5 KB | 79 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: TIMOR NOW INTOLERABLE
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Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 07:04:11 GMT
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/** reg.easttimor: 347.0 **/
The Indonesians are reportedly invading the premises of at least some
churches.

 Topic: Rep. Hall: Timor Now Intolerable **
** Written  8:08 pm  Dec 11, 1992 by cscheiner in cdp:reg.easttimor **
From: Charles Scheiner <cscheiner>
Subject: Rep. Hall: Timor Now Intolerable

/* Written  3:23 pm  Dec 11, 1992 by [e-mail] in igc:reg.indonesia */
/* ---------- "Rep. Hall: Timor Now Intolerable" ---------- */

For immediate release
December 11, 1992

Contact: Eric Delinsky [phone]

Rep. Tony P. Hall (D-OH), Chairman of the House Select Committee
on Hunger, today lashed out at the Indonesian government over new
accounts of widespread terror and atrocities by Indonesian forces
in the wake of the capture of Xanana Gusmao, leader of the resistance
movement in indonesian-occupied East Timor, where at least 100,000
people have perished since Indonesia illegally invaded the former
Portuguese colony in 1975.

"These are horrendous reports," said Hall.  "The United States should
not tolerate this kind of conduct by the Indonesians any longer.  The
international community should make it clear that, one way or another,
Jakarta will pay a stiff price if this continues."

Hall reacted to fresh reports on December 10, 1992 from Amnesty International
and december 11 from a respected Catholic organization, the London-based
Catholic Institute for International Relations, and other authoritative
sources, that many people are currently being tortured and beaten in
an Indonesian military effort to break the spirit of the Timorese people.
The United Nations does not recognize Indonesian sovereignty over East
Timor.

Such sources indicate that there have been numerous arrests in the aftermath
of the November 20 arrest of Mr. Gusmao, the Timorese leader.  The military
has announced that he will be placed on trial within three months, and
may face the death penalty.  Last week, Gusmao appeared on Indonesian
television and renounced his long-held views, eliciting charges that he
had been tortured.  East Timor's Roman Catholic Bishop, Carlos Belo, has
indicated as much.  Indonesian authorities waited 17 days before allowing
the International Red Cross to visit Gusmao, but other prisoners have
not been allowed such visits.  Red Cross rules prohibit the organization
from commenting publicly on the conditions of the prisoners it visits.

Hall pointed out that there is longstanding interest in Congress in the
plight of East Timor, citing letters signed by a majority of the House
of Representatives in 1990 and the Senate in 1991.  Hall led a successful
Congressional effort that ended in October with the suspension of $2.3
million in American military training for the Indonesian Armed Forces
for Fiscal Year 1993.  That marked the first time that the Congress cut
aid to Indonesia over the East Timor situation.

"Indonesia will suffer in terms of international goodwill and in other
ways if Jakarta continues on its hard-line source," Hall said.

                                -30-

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