Manila expels foreign dignitaries for E. Timor conference

MANILA (Agencies): The Philippines yesterday barred an American professor from entering the country to attend a meeting on East Timor a day after expelling Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire and an Irish human rights activist.

Airport immigration officials threw out Susan Castillo, 46, after she admitted she had come to attend the privately organized conference, which has angered neighboring Indonesia, Reuters reported.

"They told me they were sorry but I would not be allowed in because the conference is banned," she told reporters as officials prepared to escort her on a plane back to Europe.

Castillo, who hails from Jackson, Mississippi but has lived for 23 years in Portugal where she teaches at the University of Oporto, said she would file a strong protest with the U.S. embassy in Lisbon against her expulsion.

Immigration officials confirmed the expulsion order on Castillo, one of 10 foreign delegates expected to arrive on Sunday to attend the meeting, which opens on Tuesday.

The government has threatened to bar all if they come.

Immigration officials kept a watch-list of at least 36 prohibited foreign delegates and scrutinized every arriving foreigner, checking the names on their passports against their list before allowing any of them through.

"We have pictures of some of them...every foreigner that's coming is on the watch," said airport travel control chief Mama Casan. "Provincial airports have also been alerted."

French First Lady Danielle Mitterrand is named on the list according to AFP. Mitterrand had accepted an invitation to attend the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) to be held from Tuesday to Friday, but later said she would not be coming, although no reason was given for the change of plan.

Maguire and Irish human rights activist Tom Hyland were thrown out when they arrived on Saturday night.

Maguire, who as Mairead Corrigan shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize with Betty Williams for their Northern Ireland peace efforts, said Manila capitulated to pressure from Indonesia.

"But we will not let this rest."

The foreign office said the expulsion was "to prevent non- Filipinos from making use of Philippine soil to seek to undermine the territorial integrity of a friendly neighboring state."

Also yesterday, University of the Philippines officials banned conference organizers from using the campus and its facilities for the meeting. The announcement was released through the presidential palace.

Organizers have invited 150 delegates from 15 nations to the meeting which would discuss what they alleged to be human rights abuses by the Indonesian government in East Timor.

Indonesian anger over the meeting prompted President Fidel Ramos to ban foreigners from it. A judge ordered the meeting canceled until he has heard a petition urging a ban on it.

Filipino organizers said they would not be cowed and would proceed with the conference.

They said at least six foreign delegates, including visitors from the United States, Australia and South Korea, had arrived after slipping past immigration officials at the airport.

"We will proceed with the conference. We do not believe this order is legal," said Renato Constantino, head of a group of Filipino human rights activists organizing the meeting.

In Jakarta, the Antara news agency said East Timorese rebel leader Ramos Horta and several Australians had been denied visas to attend the meeting. It quoted a spokesman for the Philippine ambassador in Canberra for the report.

The Australians denied visas include James Dunn, Australia's former consul to East Timor's capital Dili; New South Wales University lecturer Garth Nettheim; Pastor Hilton Deakan from the Melbourne diocese; and Shirley Shackleton, wife of an Australian journalist killed while on assignment in East Timor in 1975.

Political commentator Amando Doronila of the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper said Manila's ban on the foreigners and the court's order for the meeting to be canceled is a triumph for Indonesia but a foreign policy disaster for the Philippines..

"(This) has left Philippine diplomacy in a shambles. The Philippines' handling of the crisis was an absolute disaster," he said.

Analyst Teodoro Benigno said Ramos had himself to blame. "He has absolutely no knowledge of foreign relations. That's why he's getting into all these troubles....He fell flat on his face on this."