East Timorese recall hardships in Portugal
East Timorese recall hardships in Portugal
JAKARTA (JP): Three East Timorese families who recently returned from Portugal warned their compatriots in Indonesia yesterday that life there is not as glamorous as some people make it out to be.
"We were treated as second class citizens," recalled Evaristo Da Costa, one of the three men who were decorated with the status of veteran by the government on Wednesday.
"And because we were former prisoners, we were treated improperly. We were still regarded as criminals and they were constantly watching us wherever we went," Da Costa said.
Da Cost, 60 , Armindo Soares Amaral, 56, and Domingos Soares, 56, and their families flew in last week from Lisbon, in the first leg of their journey to their homeland they left 35 years ago.
They had spent the week meeting with Indonesian officials before flying on to Dili, where another homecoming reception awaits them.
The three were members of a group of people who were sent into exile for rebelling against the Portuguese colonial administration in 1959. Some were banished to Angola and Mozambique before finding their way to Portugal. Several of them have since returned to East Timor, but dozens are believed to be still in Portugal, most eking a living doing temporary, odd jobs.
Da Costa, who did most of the talking at yesterday's media briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that until 1994, he had worked as a night guard while Amaral worked for a packaging company. Soares had no permanent job.
He said that hard conditions, including discriminatory treatment, also faced thousands of other East Timorese living in Portugal, including those who fled their homeland because of their opposition to East Timor's integration with Indonesia.
"They are neglected by the Portuguese government and are being cheated," Da Costa said through a translator, referring to the youths who gained passage to Portugal in the last two years after forcing their way first into a number of foreign embassies in Jakarta.
Da Costa said most of these youths had forced their way into the diplomatic missions under false illusions about their prospects of a better life in Portugal.
"They were promised everything in return for jumping the (embassy) fences. They dream about a better living in Portugal, but after reached there, they found the reality totally different. They regret it," Da Costa said.
Da Costa said the asylum seekers and most of exiled East Timorese survived with a low-standard living and many were unemployed in Portugal.
The three men denied the suggestion that they had left Portugal because of economic pressures. "We are the (first) freedom fighters for East Timor integration. Why can't we come back after the integration has done?" Da Costa said.
"We will die here, in our homeland," he added.
The government has said that the three men and their families would be given houses and farmland. But other than this and the recognition as veterans, they would not be given special treatment.
Speaking at the same briefing, Indonesia's ambassador at Large on East Timor issues, Lopes da Cruz, said the government would welcome other East Timorese who were banished by the Portuguese colonial administration if they wished to return.
Da Cruz disclosed that another group of 12 East Timorese freedom fighters will arrive in Indonesia soon. (01)