E. Timorese issues raised at campus<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Discussions and exhibitions on East Timor at the
\nUniversity of Indonesia on Friday raised student curiosity over
\nofficial versions of the territory's integration.<\/p>\n
Citing the fact that some dispute official versions of
\nintegration, a university law school student asked: \"If
\nintegration was not imposed, why are there demands for a
\nreferendum?\"<\/p>\n
A speaker from the Solidarity Forum for East Timor People
\n(Fortilos), Hilmar Farid, answered indirectly, saying that
\ngovernment-recognized prointegration groups now had less
\ninfluence in the province.<\/p>\n
Former Udayana commander Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei, who had
\nbeen scheduled to address the forum, was unable to attend,
\norganizers said.<\/p>\n
The talks and exhibitions on Friday were the culmination of
\nthe university's East Timor Week, which began on Monday.<\/p>\n
During the discussion on Friday, a history professor raised
\nthe fact that there was a growing appreciation of the diverse
\nopinions on the province.<\/p>\n
\"It should be acknowledged that life in this early era of
\nreform has ... opened corridors for each party to appreciate
\ndifferences of opinion, including those regarding the history of
\nEast Timor,\" Susanto Zuhdi wrote in a paper, East Timor in
\nContemporary History Studies.<\/p>\n
Last month in Dare, East Timor, talks mediated by the Catholic
\nChurch between local figures resulted in a declaration
\nrecognizing at least two aspirations held by the province's
\npopulace: a preference for the government's special autonomy
\nstatus and demands for a referendum.<\/p>\n
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas separately met
\nactivists representing both preferences on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Friday's talks discussed a 1991 book by John G. Taylor,
\nIndonesia's Forgotten War: The Hidden History of East Timor,
\nwhich was recently published by Fortilos in Indonesian.<\/p>\n
Organizer Novi Siti Julaeha said students' attention to East
\nTimor had only recently increased because of access to several
\nnew translations.<\/p>\n
Novi, who runs the school's Internet magazine KQ Online, was
\nalso one of the speakers on Thursday on violence experienced by
\nEast Timor women. She referred to recent studies and other new
\ntranslations on the subject.<\/p>\n
East Timor Week was organized, among others, by the
\nuniversity's School of Social and Political Sciences student
\nsenate and included a dialog with East Timor student
\nassociations.<\/p>\n
Students expressed shock, Novi said, on seeing photographs of
\nviolence in the province. \"We have no intention of discrediting
\nanybody,\" she said, adding that the week was held to disclose
\ninformation which had never been raised in lectures.<\/p>\n
A lecturer on international relations, Andi Widjajanto, told
\nthe forum that the military's approach to the province had been
\nineffective.<\/p>\n
Citing a study in several countries on internal wars between
\n1945 and 1989, the son of a former officer in the province said
\nthat while government military operations seek victory,
\n\"guerrillas in a separatist war seek to survive and maintain
\ntheir influence on international public opinion\" regardless of
\ntheir small numbers. (anr)<\/p>",
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