House to hold plenary session on East Timor
House to hold plenary session on East Timor
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives will hold a plenary
meeting later this week to discuss the latest developments in
East Timor, which has been troubled by racial and religious
tensions in recent weeks.
Aisyah Amini of the United Development Party (PPP), who is
also chair of Commission I, overseeing security and political
affairs, said yesterday that the House will discuss the findings
of the visit to the territory made last week by herself and her
colleague B.N. Marbun.
The House will prepare a number of proposals regarding the
problem, including its call for the establishment of an inter-
religions forum to help contain racial and religious tensions,
Aisyah said.
She said that, during her visit to East Timor, local officials
have promised that they will help the return to the province of
dozens of Moslem "refugees" who fled the province following the
riots. The officials also guaranteed their safety, she added.
"I don't know whether these promises have been kept, because I
haven't heard whether those people are now home," she said during
a break at a symposium on Islam.
About 80 non-native East Timorese fled to Surabaya, East Java,
earlier this month citing continued intimidation from East
Timorese. Recent reports from Surabaya, however, suggest that
they have now returned to East Timor.
Aisyah and Marbun flew to the East Timor capital Dili and the
city of Maliana last Thursday, joining Baharuddin Lopa and
Charles Himawan of the National Commission on Human Rights, who
were already there to launch their own investigation.
"We visited damaged buildings, we found out that people had
fled their homes because of the riots. We spoke to teachers whose
school buildings and dormitories were burned down," she said.
"All of that created fear among the people there."
She said she hoped the consultation forum among religions in
East Timor would be established soon in order to help people
learn to live together peacefully. "People look up to those
religious leaders for guidance," she said.
"No one region in Indonesia should be exclusively for one
religion only," she said. "Our Constitution protects the rights
of the people to seek a livelihood and practice their religions
(in any part of the country)."
The riots, which targeted migrants, who are mostly Moslems,
were reportedly sparked by a comment of a prisons official which
denigrated Roman Catholicism -- the main religion in the
province.
Aisyah dismissed the suggestion of Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe
Ximenes Belo that the government designate East Timor "a special
Catholic region."
"There's no such region in Indonesia. This notion is against
the drive to establish unity," Aisyah said. "This will only
create gaps and conflicts, ones which are more serious in
nature."
"There should not be any exclusive region, and there is none
in this world," she said. "People should be free to go anywhere,
to the United States, to East Timor. East Timorese people can go
anywhere they want to, so other people should also be able to go
there."
In an interview with Gatra weekly, Bishop Belo said he once
proposed that East Timor be declared a region of Catholic people.
The proposal was rejected, he said.
Belo said the recent religious and ethnic violence is only the
tip of the iceberg and that the local people's frustration stems
from numerous social injustices.
Aisyah rejected the accusation the migrants had not adjusted
to local norms.
"It's relative...Everybody has their own traits and signs of
upbringing, and they should indeed adapt to the local norms," she
said. "But this should not be a one-way process. The hosts should
also strive to adapt to the newcomers," she added. (swe)
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