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)