Megawati to get guarded Timor welcome
Megawati to get guarded Timor welcome
Dean Yates, Reuters, Dare, East Timor
Lurdes da Cruz fights back tears as she thinks about the suffering endured by East Timor's people during harsh Indonesian occupation.
But the feisty founder of a Christian institute welcomes Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri's plan to fleetingly attend ceremonies marking East Timor's independence with other foreign leaders at midnight on Sunday.
"Her presence here will be good although we pray she will understand the feelings of others in Indonesia who want to be free. It's their right, their dream," da Cruz said, referring to mainly Muslim Indonesia's rebellious provinces of Papua and Aceh, her voice cracking with emotion.
Despite Indonesia's 24-year iron rule, Timorese on the streets of Dili and in Dare village high up in the hills overlooking the capital are ready to give Megawati a guarded welcome, saying her visit shows Jakarta has finally accepted their independence.
There are mixed feelings over whether Megawati should apologize to East Timor - some see it as meaningless - while few expect any protests over her flying, late-night stopover.
But Jakarta is taking no chances over possible trouble and military officials said on Friday some 2,000 troops and six extra navy vessels would be on standby in neighboring Indonesian West Timor should they be needed.
East Timor broke away from Indonesia in 1999 through a UN- sponsored ballot after an occupation in which an estimated 200,000 people, or a quarter of the population, died as a result of military repression, famine and disease.
A passionate nationalist, Megawati was a leading critic of the decision to allow the territory to break away.
The independence vote sparked violence by pro-Jakarta militias who killed 1,000 people, according to UN estimates. The United Nations has been administering East Timor ever since.
Megawati will only stay in Dili for several hours and will also pay homage at a cemetery for Indonesian soldiers who died during the occupation. East Timor's president-elect Xanana Gusmao, the territory's former guerrilla leader who has made a point of repairing ties with his giant neighbor, will accompany her.
"Her visit is appropriate. The past is the past, we need to work together," said Justiano de Jesus, a journalist and youth activist.
"It will show Indonesia accepts East Timor's independence." Added Antonio Santos, an unemployed university graduate:
"She is welcome. I agree with Xanana's policy on Indonesia."
Megawati's predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid visited East Timor in early 2000 and apologized for Jakarta's abuses.
But many Indonesian politicians are opposed to Megawati attending the independence celebrations, saying it will offend war veterans and families of Indonesian soldiers killed here.
On Friday, about 150 war widows and veterans staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration outside the presidential palace in Jakarta to oppose Megawati's visit.
Timorese will mark independence almost to the day four years ago that their nemesis, former Indonesian President Soeharto, stepped down on May 21, 1998, as rioting and economic chaos gripped his country.
Soeharto ordered the invasion of East Timor in 1975 after the withdrawal of the Portuguese colonial administration.
Indonesia built roads and schools across East Timor but the climate of fear and persecution of anyone sympathetic to independence guaranteed Timorese would always vote for the chance to break free, which they did in droves in 1999.
And much of that development amounted to little when most was destroyed by the Indonesian military-backed militias.