`Let them go,' Soeharto says of 29 E. Timorese
`Let them go,' Soeharto says of 29 E. Timorese
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday said that any East
Timorese who still opposes Indonesia's integration of East Timor
could leave the country.
In his first reported comment on the plan by 29 East Timorese
protesters to go to Portugal, Soeharto was quoted as saying: "Let
them go to Portugal. We have no objection if the 29 at the U.S.
embassy leave."
His remarks were repeated by Mohammad Isnaeni, an executive of
the August 17, 1945 Foundation who, along with other board
members, met with the head of state at the presidential
residence.
Soeharto said that any young East Timorese who opposes the
integration is free to leave the country, according to Isnaeni.
"The more the better."
East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares on Tuesday said
that the anti-integration camp represents a tiny minority of the
East Timorese people.
They managed however to steal international headlines by
staging demonstrations last week to draw the attention of the
foreign media which was in town for the APEC meetings.
The 29 youths who scaled the U.S. Embassy fence on Nov. 12 and
staged a sit-in since then have announced their intention to take
up a Portuguese offer of asylum.
Yesterday, on the 11th day of their occupation of the embassy
parking grounds, they were finally moved into a building as
preparations got underway to arrange their passage to Portugal.
Previously, they were camped outside in the open air, during
which time one of them was taken ill and later admitted to a
hospital.
The U.S. Embassy is coordinating the travel arrangements with
the local office of the International Commission of the Red
Cross. It was not immediately known when plans would be complete
and when they protesters would leave the embassy compound.
Although the government and the military have given their
assurances that the protesters would not be arrested upon
leaving, the Jakarta Police said one of the protesters is wanted
in connection with the murder of an off-duty soldier at a red-
light district earlier this year. (emb/yns)