E.Timor Tragedy: Int'l Outrage, Apathy in Oz Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Guardian April 14, 1999 Latest East Timor Atrocity: International outrage, Australian Government apathy The mass murder of innocent people in the East Timorese town of Liquica last week has unleashed a wave of indignation. Armed militias, backed by the Indonesian armed forces, attacked and murdered up to 25 villagers who tried to find sanctuary in a church. About 100 people are still missing and there are demands for a UN inquiry into this latest atrocity in East Timor. On Saturday April 10, members of Melbourne's East Timorese community, together with Australian and visiting international supporters of East Timor self-determination, held a rally at Parliament House to protest at the atrocity. The rally called on the Australian Government to bring maximum pressure to bear on Indonesia's President Habibie and General Wiranto to disarm and disband the paramilitary groups in East Timor, in order to allow the UN process of consultation on the future of East Timor to take place in a non- violent atmosphere. The rally also called on the United Nations to take urgent steps immediately to prevent warfare and chaos in East Timor, the promotion of which may be the objective of certain groups in the Indonesian military. The rally strongly deplored the decision of the Indonesian Government to postpone the UN-sponsored talks scheduled for later this month. Speakers expressed fears that postponement would lead to the loss of more innocent lives. East Timorese solidarity groups supported Xanana Gusmao's recent call to the East Timorese independence fighter group Falantil to resume defending their lives and their homeland with arms. In his message from captivity Mr Gusmao stated that since October 1998, ABRI (Indonesian armed forces) had been supplying weapons to civilian militias with the intention of intimidating and provoking the population. The East Timorese Resistance had been making regular appeals to the international community, including the Australian Government, to pressure Jakarta to dismantle and disarm the militias. However, for the past 23 years members of the international community had placed more trust in ABRI than in the Timorese people, whose appeals had been ignored. Mr Gusmao noted that with this attitude of passivity on the part of the international community, the Indonesian Government felt sufficiently confident of its ability to go on arming more groups all over the territory and intensifying the campaign of violence, to the point of murdering the population and then blaming the Resistance (a tactic long used by ABRI, not only in East Timor, but also in Indonesia itself). "Our political goodwill and our commitment to peace have been perceived as our weakest point ... the international community seems not to feel the necessity to contribute to a peaceful solution in East Timor", said Mr Gusmao in his message. Speakers at the Melbourne rally concluded that the Australian Government must take action now, and that the current wait-and-see policy would constitute tacit support for further murders. ********************************************************************** This public article was forwarded by NOBBY . ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytpac-04.26.99-09:44:34-30557