Four Timorese break into French embassy

JAKARTA (JP): Four East Timorese entered the French embassy yesterday, seeking asylum in Portugal or France.

French embassy and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials discussed the asylum bid with the four Timorese.

Embassy sources said the East Timorese sought asylum in Portugal, where they could be granted citizenship, but other sources said the youths wanted to seek refuge in France.

The embassy's first counselor, Martine Dorance, told The Jakarta Post that talks were underway on the East Timorese youths' request but refused to elaborate.

Embassy spokesman Dominique Roubert told the Post a letter had been forwarded to the French ambassador but he declined to reveal its content.

AFP identified the four men from Los Palos in eastern East Timor as Rui Ximenes, aged 26, Akilis Siqueira, 21, Siquito Valente, 18 and Bonifacio Cardoso Diaz, 18.

Embassy officials said the East Timorese scaled the embassy fence, on Jl. Thamrin, at approximately 5:50 a.m.

The last embassy break-in by Timorese was in December, when three people sought refuge also at the French embassy. They were transferred to Portugal.

Sri Wahyu Endah, the spokeswoman of the ICRC's representative office here, said negotiations were still underway.

Yesterday's break-in takes the total of Timorese seeking asylum in foreign embassies here to 119 since 1993; 72 of them were in 1996.

East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976, a move never recognized by the United Nations or Western states, which still view Lisbon as the territory's administrator. (01)