Ex-Fretilin leader speaks for RI at UN committee<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A former leader of an East Timor armed
\nseparatist movement spoke in favor of the integration of the
\nformer Portuguese colony and said he is proud to be an Indonesian
\ncitizen.<\/p>\n
Fransisco Xavier Amaral, a former leader of Fretilin which has
\nbeen fighting for a separate state for the last 19 years, told
\nthe United Nations' Decolonization Committee in New York that
\nEast Timor is firmly part of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Ethnically, East Timor is no different from West Timor. They
\nwere only separated because of past colonial policies,\" Amaral
\nwas quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.<\/p>\n
The UN forum, better known as the Committee of 24, resumed the
\ndebate about East Timor on Wednesday. The world body still
\nregards it as a Portuguese colony although Portugal abandoned the
\nterritory in haste in 1975.<\/p>\n
Amaral, a founding member of Fretilin, was one of three
\npersons who spoke about the need for everyone to be realistic in
\ntreating the East Timor case. The other two were Jose Martins
\nIII, formerly head of the Timorese Liberation Organization, and
\nPaulino Gama of the Timorese International Secretariat for Human
\nRights, according to Antara.<\/p>\n
The committee also received a petition from 29 international
\nnon-government organizations that included the Timorese
\nDemocratic Union and the East Timor Action Network of the United
\nStates and the Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor in Manila.<\/p>\n
The petitioners criticized Indonesia's human rights record in
\nEast Timor and demanded that the territory be given its
\nindependence.<\/p>\n
Amaral, however, recounted the cruelty of the Portuguese in
\ncolonizing East Timor for over 450 years which included
\npersecuting any literate East Timorese because they were
\nconsidered dangerous.<\/p>\n
Portugal also set one East Timorese against another, even a
\nson and his father, he said.<\/p>\n
When they abandoned East Timor, they washed their hands of it
\nwhile the country was in a state of civil war, he said. \"I know
\nthis because I was one of the protagonists in that civil war
\nfighting for East Timor's independence.\"<\/p>\n
Amaral told the committee that the East Timor problem has now
\nbeen turned into a \"political commodity\" by some people to serve
\ntheir own interests, including those in Portugal.<\/p>\n
He underlined that Portugal also has a poor record when it
\ncomes to its hands-off policy in its other former colonies such
\nas Mozambique and Angola.<\/p>\n
\"Integration does not simply mean that East Timor is part of
\nIndonesia, it also means that all of Indonesia belongs to East
\nTimor,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian and Portuguese delegations are expected to
\naddress the forum on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has insisted that the decolonization process of East
\nTimor was completed on July 17, 1976, when tribal leaders
\nrepresenting the majority of the East Timor people signed a
\npetition declaring their intention to integrate with Indonesia.
\n(emb)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ex-fretilin-leader-speaks-for-ri-at-un-committee-1447893297",
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