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)