East Timorese youths protest about Horta

East Timorese youths protest about Horta

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Around 30 pro-integration East Timorese
youths staged a peaceful demonstration yesterday at the
legislative council to counter previous protests by anti-
integration groups.

Calling themselves the East Timor Students Movement, the
youths said they fully supported the region's integration into
Indonesia and would struggle along side their Indonesian brethren
to develop the archipelago's youngest province.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated into
Indonesia in 1976. The United Nations however still recognizes
Lisbon as the administering power there.

The youths particularly slammed the selection of self-exiled
East Timor separatist leader Jose Ramos Horta as one of the two
1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

This year's Nobel Peace Price Winners are Horta and Dili
Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

Horta, who currently resides in Australia, leads a small but
vocal anti-integration lobby against Indonesia. His selection as
a Nobel laureate was considered a severe blow to Indonesian
diplomacy because it gave credit to his cause.

The youths yesterday waved placards and posters, some of which
read: "Horta is not East Timorese," "Anti-integration is
subversive," "Horta is a Westerners' Clown," and "Just kill the
East Timoreses as much as you can and you will be the next winner
after Horta."

Only last week, a group of anti-integration youths staged a
protest here to counter previous pro-integration demonstrations
in Jakarta.

The youths also called on all citizens to help prevent actions
intended to rock national peace and stability.

Octavio A. de Jesus O. Soares, one of the youths who
accompanied Belo on his trip to collect the Nobel prize in Oslo,
said anti-integration feeling would continue to cause trouble as
long as Fretilin existed.

"Fretilin killed 200,000 East Timorese and attempted to pin
the blame on the Armed Forces (ABRI)," Octavio said, referring to
the separatist movement in the province.

The authorities have repeatedly said there have been only 200
Fretilin rebels left since 1976.

Unfortunately, Octavio added, those same Fretilin rebels have
changed Fretilin's name to the underground Council for National
Maubere Resistance, or CNRM, and are deceiving countless youths
who do not understand the organization's history. (23/06)