Churches offer haven for E. Timor refugees
Churches offer haven for E. Timor refugees
CANBERRA (Agencies): Convents, churches and monasteries around Australia are offering sanctuary to East Timorese refugees in a move that could set them against the national government and land them in jail.
About 2,000 Christians have formed the Christian Sanctuary Network in a bid to stop the East Timorese being sent back to the disputed Indonesian province of East Timor, Catholic nun Kathleen O'Connor said yesterday.
"We are going to offer sanctuary, protect them and hide them in our churches," said O'Connor. "We have invoked an ancient and traditional practice of the Christian church," she added.
About 1,300 people from the former Portuguese colony now ruled by Indonesia have applied for political asylum in Australia, raising Jakarta's ire and threatening the often stormy relations between the two neighbors.
Protecting delicate relations with Jakarta, Australia last month ruled out political asylum to people fleeing East Timor on the grounds they were entitled to Portuguese citizenship.
But it has granted temporary asylum to some East Timorese refugees who said they were treated unfairly by Indonesian troops, sparking protests from Jakarta.
The sanctuary network is offering religious sanctuary, an ancient convention giving protection to people on sacred ground, to any East Timorese refused asylum and facing deportation.
Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans yesterday dismissed the sanctuary offer as "wildly premature", saying refugee applications were still before the independent Refugee Review Tribunal. A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Nick Bolkus also said it was premature to prejudge the cases.
Sanctuary network members face up to six months in jail under Australian law for harboring illegal immigrants.
"We have legal counsel and we realize the implications and we are prepared to go all the way," O'Connor said.
O'Connor, who visited East Timor in 1994, said the group was also pressing the Australian government to take tougher action against Indonesia over human rights abuses.