Four Timorese break into French embassy

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)