East Timorese seek asylum at Japan embassy

East Timorese seek asylum at Japan embassy

JAKARTA (JP): A group of East Timorese youths yesterday
climbed the fence into the Japanese Embassy compound, seeking
political asylum. The government promptly responded that they are
free to go.

Tokyo, however, said it was unlikely to give the youths refuge
as its legal system was not capable of offering such protection.

The 21 youths scaled the fence in the morning, according to
Nobuhito Hobo, the embassy's counselor for economic and technical
cooperation.

Lopez Da Cruz, Indonesia's ambassador-at-large for East Timor
affairs, told reporters after meeting President Soeharto
yesterday that the youths were free to seek asylum in Portugal.

"We don't want to stop them. If they want to go back, the road
is open to Portugal," Da Cruz quoted Soeharto as saying.

Hiroshi Hashimoto, chief foreign ministry spokesman, said it
was unlikely that Japan would give the youths refuge. He was
quoted by Reuter as saying that Japan's legal system was not
capable of offering such legal protection.

"Japan doesn't have the (legal) framework to make it possible
to accept those seeking political asylum here," he said in Tokyo.

Hashimoto said he did not believe there had been a single case
in the past where Japan had accepted such people. Six East
Timorese students unsuccessfully sought asylum in 1989 at the
Japanese and Vatican embassies in Jakarta.

The 21 men are the third group to enter a foreign embassy in
Indonesia in two months.

The embassy's press attache, Koichi Ohashi, said the men had
been interviewed but it was not clear where they wanted to go.

"They wanted to contact the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) and we are now contacting the ICRC because of their
request," Ohashi said.

The ICRC was involved in talks that won asylum in Portugal for
a total of 13 East Timorese who entered the British Embassy in
September and the Dutch Embassy earlier this month.

Hobo told reporters here that the 21 men jumped the metal
perimeter fence at 7:30 a.m. They entered the compound in full
view of rush-hour traffic.

The latest embassy break-in came less than one week before a
summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in
Osaka, Japan.

"It is quite obviously aimed at trying to embarrass
Indonesia's position prior to the meeting," Indonesian foreign
ministry spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl said. "There's a pattern to
this."

Last year, just before the previous APEC meeting, 29 East
Timorese entered the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and staged a lengthy
sit-in.

A petition from the group named all 21 men, aged between 19
and 25, now believed to be inside the embassy. It said they had
all been active in clandestine groups and "the struggle for human
rights in Dili and have all frequently come into contact with the
military apparatus".

East Timor police chief Col. Andreas Sugianto was quoted by
the Antara news agency as saying on Tuesday there were 4,000
members of the clandestine groups.

Ohashi told The Jakarta Post the members of the group did not
all come directly from East Timor. Four came from Surabaya, and
another four from Jakarta, he said.

Henry Fournier, head of the ICRC's Jakarta office told the
Post said he has yet to wait for Tokyo to reply before he can do
anything for the men. (01)