Asylum seekers' request studied

Asylum seekers' request studied

JAKARTA (JP): Five East Timorese asylum seekers holed up at
the British Embassy in Jakarta since Monday may be going to
Portugal after Lisbon offered them a passage there.

A British embassy official confirmed that an offer from Lisbon
had been made to London, but he declined to say whether the five
East Timorese were willing to go to Portugal instead of Britain.

Reuters reported from London that the British Foreign Office
said Portugal has offered political asylum to the five youths.

A spokesman said Britain had accepted the offer and was
negotiating details with the Indonesian and Portuguese
governments. "The Portuguese have offered to take them and we've
accepted that kind offer," he said.

Earlier on, it looked like the East Timorese were in for a
long haul as officials at the British foreign and home offices
were still deliberating their request yesterday.

"If possible we hope for an answer today, but we don't really
expect it will come quickly," the embassy's Second Secretary John
Virgoe told journalists outside the embassy yesterday morning.

The five Timorese, all in their 20s, are T.J. Fernandes,
Antonio Baptista Sequiera, Nelson Turquel, Egas Soares and
Joaquim Alim. They entered the embassy on Jl. M.H. Thamrin on
Monday afternoon and asked for political asylum.

They claimed to be members of various underground movements
fighting Indonesia's integration of East Timor.

The former Portuguese colony was adopted as the nation's 27th
province in 1976. Britain is one of the European nations which
does not recognize that integration.

Several of the Timorese claimed they were involved in the
demonstration which led to the 1991 Dili incident in which at
least 50 protesters were killed in clashes with security forces.

The Indonesian foreign ministry's director of information,
Irawan Abidin, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the
government would not hinder the youths from leaving the country
or persecute them if they decided to stay in Indonesia.

If the asylum requests are granted, the five youths are "free
to leave", Irawan said.

If rejected, they are "free to return to where they came from
without any duress inflicted upon them".

Irawan stated that the five Timorese were making false claims,
pointing out that they were never under persecution in the first
place and thus are not eligible for political refugee status.

Two previous attempts by East Timorese youths to gain
political asylum by camping inside foreign embassies succeeded.
On both counts, they were given asylum by Portugal, the former
colonial master of East Timor.

In July 1993, seven men spent a few weeks at the Swedish and
Finnish embassies before gaining asylum from Lisbon.

Last November, 29 East Timorese occupied the grounds of the
United States Embassy for a whole week before they also left as
political refugees to Portugal.

Yesterday, Virgoe would not allow journalists to speak to the
five Timorese, saying only that they were located on the first
floor of the embassy.

Irawan said the embassy has been in constant contact with his
office concerning the matter. "We're just waiting to hear their
decision," Irawan said. (mds)