Horta wants to form shadow govt

CANBERRA (Antara): Anti-integration activist Jose Ramos Horta has announced his so-called East Timor Liberation movement would set up a shadow government in Indonesia's 27th province.

The cabinet line up would consist of East Timorese anti- Indonesian activists who live abroad and in the province, he said.

Ramos Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, said on Australian SBS radio here recently that the names of the shadow cabinet members could not be revealed for fear of the safety of those in East Timor.

He said if the "officials" proved their usefulness, the shadow government could in time be "recognized as the legal government for the East Timorese people".

The former Portuguese colony integrated into Indonesia in 1976 but the United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as its administrator.

A test round of talks on East Timor between Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers under the auspices of the UN has been postponed.

Ramos Horta, who visited Macao recently, said the idea had been forwarded to former Fretilin leader Xanana Gusmao, who is still serving his 20-year-imprisonment in Jakarta's Cipinang prison.

Meanwhile, a court in London reportedly adjourned the case of the two British anti-Indonesian government activists Carol O'Leary and Stefen Handcock.

Both allegedly trespassed on the British Aerospace Airbase and destroyed a number of jet fighters purchased by the Indonesian government in a protest against the selling of jet fighters to Indonesia.