Pro-Jakarta forces unite ahead of E. Timor ballot
JAKARTA (JP): A newly formed umbrella front for prointegration groups in East Timor met in the provincial capital of Dili on Friday to prepare nonviolent campaign for autonomy in the August referendum set to decide the province's future.
"We are still laying down our constitution and defining a structure for our organization," founder member Fransisco Xavier Lopes da Cruz was quoted as saying by AFP on the sidelines of the first congress of the East Timor People's Front.
Participants, composed of about 160 representatives from the territory's 13 districts, agreed on a fundamental policy of nonviolent campaigning, da Cruz said.
"All our efforts will be based on peaceful and nonviolent means," said da Cruz, who is also ambassador at large for East Timor affairs.
Prointegration militias blamed for recent killing rampages in the troubled former Portuguese colony have yet to sign up, he told the news agency, adding he was scheduled to start negotiating with several of them.
"We are trying to invite them to take part... but certainly we have our own rules and they have to submit to these rules... not to terrorize but to protect the people."
The front will act as an umbrella organization for anti-independence groups and work to promote broad autonomy under Indonesia as the best option for East Timor, he said. The former Portuguese colony was integrated into Indonesia in 1976.
A United Nations-sponsored poll of East Timor's 800,000 people will be held on Aug. 8.
About 1,000 pro-Indonesia supporters also held a mass rally in support of autonomy in a field opposite the police station in Atabae.
Police in Ermera, meanwhile, found 11 unidentified bodies buried in one hole in Bauhati village. Ermera police chief Erry TB Gultom told Antara that the finding followed a questioning of four people believed to be members of a proindependence group who had been put in the list of wanted persons.
The suspects told the police their group of around 15 youths kidnapped and killed Bauhati villagers and buried them in the 6.5 cubic meter hole on Feb. 22.
Erry said police had heard about the kidnapping, but found it difficult to investigate it because nobody was willing to testify.
Asylum
In Jakarta, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia John McCarthy said that leading proindependence activist Manuel Carrascalao "has not yet approached" the embassy to seek asylum in the country.
"To my knowledge, Manuel has not yet approached the embassy, it is not yet an issue," McCarthy told reporters after a two-hour meeting with jailed rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao at his special detention house in Central Jakarta.
Separately in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, chief of the Udayana Military Command which oversees East Timor, Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, said Manuel was still taking shelter at the East Timor Police station in Dili.
McCarthy said the meeting with Xanana was "to give him an account of some aspects of the Bali summit" between President B.J. Habibie and Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday. Indonesia agreed during the meeting to the presence of United Nations police to help oversee security in East Timor ahead of the ballot.
"I found his views were considerably more positive than what was reported in the press here... he thought that the Bali summit was constructive," McCarthy said.
"It is a good idea for Australia to keep in touch with Xanana on the East Timor issue, just as we keep in touch with the Indonesian government and with those in favor of the integration."
He added that Australia "would like to keep the diplomatic network alive and working".
AFP said the Australian government faced pressure on Friday to grant asylum to Manuel after he fled the troubled province on Thursday amid increasing fears for his safety.
Australia's Labor opposition and East Timorese support groups demanded Canberra move quickly to grant a visa to Manuel, whose son Manuelito, 11, was killed by prointegration militia along with 11 others on April 17.
Manuel, who left with eight family members bound for Jakarta, said he would probably seek temporary political asylum in Australia because it was the nearest country.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton urged Canberra to grant Manuel and his family protection "as a matter of urgency".
AFP added that the whereabouts of Manuel remained unknown on Friday.
Another batch of 29 relatives of Manuel, including his wife, was due to arrive in Jakarta on Friday, a source close to him was quoted as saying by the news agency.
The source added Manuel would seek safety in Australia until a UN civilian police force is in place in East Timor under an autonomy package to be signed at the United Nations on May 5.
Manuel's younger brother, presidential advisor and former East Timor governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao, has already sought refuge in Portugal with his family.
Tension and violence between proindependence groups and prointegration supporters have heightened since Jakarta announced the independence option in January, leaving dozens killed.
Meanwhile, Antara quoted Education and Culture Minister Juwono Sudarsono as saying that 1,600 teachers had asked for transfer out of East Timor. About 700 other teachers have opted to stay, he was quoted as saying. (byg)