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)