More East Timorese leave for Portugal

More East Timorese leave for Portugal

JAKARTA (JP): Four East Timorese yesterday left the French and Polish embassies here for Portugal after entering the missions on Monday in search of political asylum.

Sources at both embassies confirmed their departure. The East Timorese left on a KLM flight to Amsterdam where they would await a connecting flight to Lisbon.

As with the departures of a number of previous asylum seekers, the departure of the two at the French embassy and the other two at the Polish embassy was facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross office here.

Over the course of the past six months, 72 East Timorese have left for Portugal after breaking into various foreign embassies here. Most cited persecution by the military in the region as their motivation.

This is the third time East Timorese have entered the French embassy this year, and the second time at the Polish embassy.

The latest incident, however, put the Poles in a rather delicate predicament since it coincided with Polish Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz's visit to Indonesia.

Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the East Timorese were free to go if they wanted to and needed not resort to such drastic measures as fence-jumping or seeking political asylum, as they had no reasons to do so.

None of the eight foreign embassies entered in the past six months have granted any of the Timorese political asylum. They directed the East Timorese to Portugal instead.

Foreign ministry officials have also noted that East Timorese asylum seekers are sticking to their tactic of attracting international media attention by staging such operations prior to important events.

Monday's asylum bid fell ahead of the second All-Inclusive Intra East Timor Talks which began in Austria yesterday. The talks bring together both supporters and opponents of integration into Indonesia. (mds)