East Timorese leaders to petition UN committee<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Five prointegration East Timorese leaders will
\ntravel to New York to take part in a United Nations' meeting on
\ndecolonization next week, Antara reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
Economist Domingos M. Policarpo dos Reis, one of the leaders,
\ntold the news agency that they would travel in their personal
\ncapacity to petition the \"Committee 24\" on behalf of those
\nsupporting East Timor's integration with Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The meeting is scheduled for June 16 and June 17. The
\ncommittee is a forum for non-governmental organizations that
\ninclude a number of liberation movements. It is separate from the
\nUN decolonization committee.<\/p>\n
The four other East Timorese leaders going are activist
\nFlorentino C. Sarmento from the Etadep Foundation, Simao Assuncao
\nfrom the East Timor provincial administration, Natercia, who will
\nrepresent East Timorese women, and Octavio, a student at Gadjah
\nMada University who will represent young East Timorese.<\/p>\n
Domingos reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about
\ntheir planned trip yesterday.<\/p>\n
East Timor is still on the UN decolonization committee's
\nagenda, although Indonesia has succeeded in preventing the issue
\nfrom being discussed at the General Assembly every year.<\/p>\n
The assembly has agreed each year to defer debate on East
\nTimor to let the UN secretary-general supervise talks between
\nIndonesia and Portugal to settle the matter.<\/p>\n
Indonesia says decolonization in East Timor was completed in
\n1976 when tribal leaders representing most of the population
\ndeclared their intention to join the republic.<\/p>\n
Indonesia also says that Portugal abandoned its colony of more
\nthan three centuries in 1975, neglecting its previous
\ndecolonization commitments.<\/p>\n
Domingos said the East Timorese delegation planned to brief
\nthe committee on real conditions in East Timor and balance its
\ninformation.<\/p>\n
He said the committee had received one-sided information on
\nthe province which was detrimental to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Anti-integration leaders had always been active in UN
\ncommittee meetings with the aim of discrediting Indonesia, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Realizing there was a need to ensure balanced information,
\nthe five of us, with assistance from the East Timor provincial
\nadministration, are going to the meeting to explain the real
\nsituation in the territory,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said there was a danger that failure to counter anti-
\nintegration propaganda could lead to a situation where \"things
\nthat aren't true become true\".<\/p>\n
\"This could happen because of the unbalanced information. One
\nway to rectify this is to make it balance,\" said Domingos, a
\nyoung graduate of the prestigious University of Indonesia's
\nSchool of Economics. (emb)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/east-timorese-leaders-to-petition-un-committee-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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