East Timorese "voted from fear" in Indonesian Poll Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - John M. Miller" East Timorese ``voted from fear'' in Indonesian poll 07:26 a.m. Jun 08, 1999 Eastern By Tim Johnston DILI, East Timor, June 8 (Reuters) - An East Timorese resistance leader said on Tuesday that most voters in the rebellious territory had only taken part in Indonesian elections out of fear. ``People thought it was safer to vote because they have been intimidated,'' Leandro Isaac, the only prominent pro-independence leader not in hiding or exile, said a day after the poll. Pro-Jakarta figures rejected his accusations. They reported a good turnout, but denied voters went to the polls under duress. Loyalist militias, which have waged a bloody campaign against independence for East Timor, were said to have pressured people into voting on Monday out of concerns that a low turn-out would be seen as a rejection of Jakarta's rule. Isaac, of the National Council for Timorese Resistance, said people were purely interested in another poll -- a U.N.-organised ballot on independence to be held in August. ``Most people are concentrating on August 8. They don't care much about the Indonesian general elections,'' he said. A leading Jakarta loyalist called Isaac's comments nonsense. ``I don't think that we can intimidate thousands of people to go to the ballot box,'' said Basilio Araujo of the pro-Jakarta Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice. ``I do not think we can run to the conclusion that most of the people that voted yesterday are pro-integration.'' Since January, when Indonesia reversed almost 24 years of policy and abandoned opposition to independence for East Timor, dozens have died as militias sought to impose their will. Vote counting was continuing in the local capital, Dili, on Tuesday, although going was painfully slow as in other centres. Early results gave the ruling Golkar party a strong lead in the territory but most of those results came from western areas, which can be strongly pro-Jakarta. Golkar was the political tool of former president Suharto, who ordered the invasion of East Timor in 1975, leading to decades of repression and the deaths of an estimated 200,000 East Timorese. Indonesian rule is still not recognised by the United Nations. END etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan John M. Miller Internet: etan-outreach@igc.apc.org Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network PO Box 150753, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0753 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097 Web site: http://www.etan.org etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan ================================================================= 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-06.11.99-02:06:52-27979