E. Timorese issues raised at campus

E. Timorese issues raised at campus

JAKARTA (JP): Discussions and exhibitions on East Timor at the
University of Indonesia on Friday raised student curiosity over
official versions of the territory's integration.

Citing the fact that some dispute official versions of
integration, a university law school student asked: "If
integration was not imposed, why are there demands for a
referendum?"

A speaker from the Solidarity Forum for East Timor People
(Fortilos), Hilmar Farid, answered indirectly, saying that
government-recognized prointegration groups now had less
influence in the province.

Former Udayana commander Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei, who had
been scheduled to address the forum, was unable to attend,
organizers said.

The talks and exhibitions on Friday were the culmination of
the university's East Timor Week, which began on Monday.

During the discussion on Friday, a history professor raised
the fact that there was a growing appreciation of the diverse
opinions on the province.

"It should be acknowledged that life in this early era of
reform has ... opened corridors for each party to appreciate
differences of opinion, including those regarding the history of
East Timor," Susanto Zuhdi wrote in a paper, East Timor in
Contemporary History Studies.

Last month in Dare, East Timor, talks mediated by the Catholic
Church between local figures resulted in a declaration
recognizing at least two aspirations held by the province's
populace: a preference for the government's special autonomy
status and demands for a referendum.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas separately met
activists representing both preferences on Thursday.

Friday's talks discussed a 1991 book by John G. Taylor,
Indonesia's Forgotten War: The Hidden History of East Timor,
which was recently published by Fortilos in Indonesian.

Organizer Novi Siti Julaeha said students' attention to East
Timor had only recently increased because of access to several
new translations.

Novi, who runs the school's Internet magazine KQ Online, was
also one of the speakers on Thursday on violence experienced by
East Timor women. She referred to recent studies and other new
translations on the subject.

East Timor Week was organized, among others, by the
university's School of Social and Political Sciences student
senate and included a dialog with East Timor student
associations.

Students expressed shock, Novi said, on seeing photographs of
violence in the province. "We have no intention of discrediting
anybody," she said, adding that the week was held to disclose
information which had never been raised in lectures.

A lecturer on international relations, Andi Widjajanto, told
the forum that the military's approach to the province had been
ineffective.

Citing a study in several countries on internal wars between
1945 and 1989, the son of a former officer in the province said
that while government military operations seek victory,
"guerrillas in a separatist war seek to survive and maintain
their influence on international public opinion" regardless of
their small numbers. (anr)