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)