E. Timorese expelled from embassy

JAKARTA (JP): Eight East Timorese people, reportedly seeking political asylum, entered the German embassy compound early yesterday morning but were later expelled by security guards.

Antara quoted Press Attache Dieter Lamle as saying that around 60 people, some of them with East Timorese features, approached the embassy at around 2 a.m. Eight managed to climb over the fence, but later left at the request of the embassy guards.

Notified by the embassy guards, a number of Indonesian security personnel then arrived at the site but stayed out of the compound.

Lamle said that the eight East Timorese were then taken away by the Indonesian security personnel, but the embassy is being kept informed about their whereabouts and condition.

Lamle's statement refuted some earlier reports about Indonesian security personnel forcing their way into the embassy and using violence to expel the East Timorese.

Reuter quoted unidentified sources who, claiming to be witnesses, said that the East Timorese were kicked, slapped, and beaten by the soldiers, and that one person's head was bleeding.

Meanwhile, AFP quoted a counselor at the embassy Wilfried Grolig as saying that the embassy guards "managed to convince them to stay out...They came over the fence and we pushed them out."

Grolig denied that the guards used violence on the intruders. "The guards are paid to guard us," he said.

Since late September, 72 East Timorese have left for Portugal after entering embassies in Jakarta. This was the first time the German embassy had been involved.

The most recent break-in was in March when four Timorese youths entered the Polish and French embassies in Jakarta, seeking asylum. The four left for Portugal, which is East Timor's former colonial power.

East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976. The United Nations, however, still recognizes Lisbon as the administering power. (swe)