East Timor at issue

The issue of East Timor cannot be separated from solutions that favor helping the people's welfare. Reading various reports and articles on East Timor in The Jakarta Post reminded me of my stay in Madison, Wisconsin, four years ago. It was in the summer during the Southeast Asia Summer Institute, including a program showing films from Southeast Asian countries.

While reading a list of films to be shown, I was surprised that a film from East Timor was designated separately from the heading of Indonesia. I asked the organizer, East Timor Action Network, why it was not included in the Indonesian section. They told me that it depended on your perspective.

I was not in the mood for arguing, so I entered the building to see the film on the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991. Before the movie, they distributed fliers, pamphlets, brochures and articles: We must keep telling so people know the truth, the testimony of Fatima Gusmao, an East Timorese woman; To resist is to win statements by Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, leader of the East Timorese Resistance; East Timor: Death of a nation by John Pilger and Indonesia: Mass extermination and the consolidation of authoritarian power by Carmel Budiardjo.

It was one-sided information brought to the public in the hope of attracting international awareness on the issue of East Timor. Outsiders would be content and satisfied if there was something very bad going on in our country. None of the many international organizations which support the independence of East Timor gave any assistance to halt the many riots, or gave a hand to the people suffering in the dispute called mahidi -- life or death for integration or proindependence. Indonesia has always taken the blame for wrongdoing in the troubled province.

Since East Timor is part of Indonesia, it is our obligation to solve the East Timorese people's problems, and not let them be encumbered by them. Indonesia is neither an imperialist nor colonial country. We would not have sent our troops to East Timor in December 1975 without help from the United States, Britain and Australia.

We urge the finding of solutions that can uplift the welfare of the East Timorese. But to let them choose the option offered by the Habibie administration would only make the issue worse.

HAFIANSYAH MEGE

Jakarta