Protesters quit Russian embassy after long talks
Protesters quit Russian embassy after long talks
JAKARTA (JP): The 58 East Timorese and non-East Timorese
protesters, who forced their way into the Russian embassy at dawn
on Thursday, left the compound last night after long
negotiations.
As they were boarding a bus outside the embassy on Jl. MH
Thamrin, dozens of people waiting outside shouted abusive words
at them, some even banging on the bus.
"Traitor," one of them shouted. "Lucky you're in the bus. We
would've turned you into satay," shouted another.
Police in riot gear prevented the two groups from getting at
one another. The identities of the counter-protesters were not
clear.
Details of the deal that prompted the protesters in the
embassy to agree to leave were not immediately available last
night. They were taken to Jakarta police headquarters.
The protesters met earlier with human rights activist H.J.C.
Princen, who ordered the bus for them.
Meanwhile, 55 protesters who have been holed up at the Dutch
embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said in south Jakarta since Thursday
morning held their ground yesterday, refusing to move out until
their demands were met. Princen was also on hand to help with the
negotiations.
He said he was seeking assurances from Jakarta military
commander Maj. Gen. Wiranto that the protesters will be safe if
they leave the embassy compound.
The protesters in the two embassies, according to Princen,
made three demands: a referendum in East Timor, the withdrawal of
troops from the territory, and the release of all East Timorese
political prisoners.
Asylum
None, not even the East Timorese, requested political asylum.
"We want to be together with the Indonesian people," said
Mariano Lopez, one of the East Timorese protesters at the Russian
embassy. "We want a democratic referendum. We believe the
Indonesian people love the truth," he said, adding that he and a
number of his colleagues were students from Malang.
Dutch Ambassador Paul Brouwer was seen yesterday with a
bandage on his head, many believed, to cover an injury he
sustained on Thursday when counter-protesters barged into the
Dutch embassy to attack the protesters inside.
Dutch First Secretary of Cultural Affairs M.A.N. Gitz
confirmed the clash and that two diplomats were injured but not
"seriously". He declined to confirm if the ambassador was one of
them.
Yesterday, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung called the
protesters, including the non-East Timorese, inside the two
embassies "scoundrels". "They don't love their own country," he
told reporters after addressing a congress of the Association of
Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals.
Feisal's spokesman Brig. Gen. Suwarno Adiwijoyo added that the
invasion of the two embassies were engineered. "Somebody, or some
organization, must have been behind all these."
A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in The Hague on
Thursday that Indonesian Ambassador Johannes Kadarisman has been
summoned and told of the Netherlands' concern over the assault.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Demurin denounced
the embassy occupation. "We regard as unacceptable the
penetration on to embassy territory. This goes against generally
accepted international norms," he told reporters in Moscow.
(anr/imn/01/03)