Pro-integration Timorese receive awards from govt
Pro-integration Timorese receive awards from govt
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security General Edi
Sudradjat honored 13 East Timorese yesterday for their service in
bringing the province into integration with the Republic of
Indonesia in 1975.
In a modest ceremony to coincide with Heroes Day, the East
Timorese were given the title "veteran fighters". They were also
inducted into the Indonesian League of Veterans for their roles
in a 1959 rebellion against the Portuguese government at
Viqueque, near Dili, in East Timor.
The 13 men were part of a group of 67 East Timorese who,
following the rebellion, were exiled to Angola. After jail terms
ranging from six to eleven years, some of the men returned to
join the pro-integration Apodeti party.
"Your struggle, either in Viqueque in June 1959 or during
other events in the process of integration, is part of the
struggle of Indonesia as a whole," Edi said.
Minister of Social Affairs Inten Suweno, Chairman of
Indonesian League of Veterans Achmad Taher, as well as a number
of high-ranking Ministry of Defense and Security officials were
present at the ceremony.
Edi said many fighters are still alive and residing in
Mozambique, Portugal and Australia, and that the government is
trying to find them and bring them home to East Timor.
Once found, he said, "they will be given the same award."
Angola and Mozambique are also ex-Portuguese colonies.
One of the honorees, Salem M. Sagran, spent four years in
jails in Angola and Portugal. He told the press after the
ceremony yesterday that he and the other fighters started to
rebel against the Portuguese long before Indonesia proclaimed its
independence in 1945.
The rebellion peaked on Nov. 30, 1975, when the East Timorese
declared their intention to integrate with Indonesia, Sagran
said.
The event is now known as the Balibo declaration, he said.
Jose Manuel Duarte said he and a number of others left the
prisons in Angola and Mozambique in 1970, when they returned to
East Timor and joined Apodeti.
"Then, we resumed our fight against the Portuguese
colonialists," he said. "We praise the Lord because we eventually
succeeded in reaching our objective of integrating into
Indonesia."
As for their East Timorese friends who have chosen to go to
Portugal over the past years, both Sagran and Duarte said that
they had the right to do so.
"Let them go. But they will be disappointed when they learn
that life is more difficult for them in Portugal than in East
Timor," said Sagran.
Earlier this week, Portugal offered asylum to eight East
Timorese who sought refuge Tuesday in the Dutch embassy in
Jakarta. The Jakarta office of the International Red Cross helped
the youths leave for their flight to Lisbon. (rms)