GRORTT seeks UN mediation

MAUMERE, East Nusa Tenggara: A newly formed group calling itself the Movement for East Timorese Unity and Reconciliation (GRORTT) has sent a letter to the United Nations demanding an independent team be sent to judge whether it is "antiintegration" as local officials allege.

Members of the group also refused to be questioned by the police or the East Timor District Court.

The letter, dated Jan. 10, demanded the United Nations send a team from the International Court of Justice to act as a neutral arbitrator.

The group's leader, Manuel Viegas Carrascalao, a former speaker of the provincial legislature, told The Jakarta Post Thursday that a UN team would be more neutral than the local officials who have already branded the group as "antiintegration".

He said the group was established to gather and unite the East Timorese community which was shattered following the 1975 civil war.

The group claimed that it had orchestrated a number of dialogs to seek a peaceful settlement to the East Timor problem.

The former Portuguese colony integrated into Indonesia, as its 27th province,9 in 1976. (yac/10)