Malaysia begins deporting E. Timor meeting activists

Malaysia begins deporting E. Timor meeting activists

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia began deporting foreign activists yesterday after they participated in a controversial conference on East Timor

The government, meanwhile, has denied backing youths who broke up the meeting.

The Kuala Lumpur conference was held ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the 1991 bloody incident in East Timor's capital of Dili.

An immigration department spokesman at Kuala Lumpur international airport said all but 10 of the activists would have left yesterday. The remainder would leave today.

Yesterday, the police freed 26 Malaysian activists and the Singapore-based correspondent of the Australia Broadcasting Corporation, Catherine McGrath, on personal bonds.

Others, including Asiaweek's correspondent in Kuala Lumpur, Roger Mitton, are expected to be released the latest by Wednesday, lawyers for the activists said.

"What happened in the past two days has been an incredible shock to all of us. We are deeply concerned about the fate of our friends who have been deported," said Debbie Stothard, a spokesperson for the conference organizers.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has criticized the organizers of the conference for going ahead in spite of a government ban, Malaysian radio reported yesterday.

"Malaysia does not want to do something which will only damage relations with its neighbor," the radio quoted Mahathir as saying.

He described the action of the conference organizers as "irresponsible" and said action would be taken against them if they were found to have broken the law.

The prime minister was speaking to Malaysian journalists covering his official visit to Ghana.

Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the government did not sanction the actions of the group which broke up the conference, although the youths belonged to groups allied to the three main political parties in Mahathir's ruling coalition.

"They acted on their own. I was not notified by them," he told reporters.

When asked if the youth groups allied to the ruling coalition would have committed such action without government sanction he said: "Certainly this was not sanctioned by the National Front, so the police had to act according to the law."

Anwar said he was awaiting a detailed report before commenting further on the incident.

Asked whether he thought foreign media coverage of the incident would damage Malaysia's image, Anwar said the attempt to organize the conference "complicated relations with Indonesia and is also an attempt to embarrass us and tarnish our image."

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, leader of the Mahathir's United Malays National Organization's youth wing, confirmed that he instructed the youth group to take action to stop the conference from being held. He told the national Bernama news agency that the action was to protect the image of Malaysia and because the UMNO Youth understood the "sensitivity of Indonesia in handling its internal affairs".

The conference organizers and opposition leader Lim Kit Siang have accused the government of orchestrating the incident to scuttle the conference.

"It is obvious from the course of events that the ugly demonstration was orchestrated with the full knowledge of the authorities concerned, so as to give a pretext to the government to stop the conference from taking place," said Lim, who heads the Democratic Action Party.

The foreign activists, including two Roman Catholic bishops -- Aloisuis Nobuo Somo of Nagoya, Japan and Hilton Deakin of Melbourne, Australia -- were detained by police after the meeting was broken up.