Religious figures call for an end to Timor tension

JAKARTA (JP): Fearing the spread of conflict to other territories, key religious figures called yesterday for a plan to put an end to religious tensions in East Timor.

Amien Rais, chief of the Muhammadiyah Moslem organization, and Protestant theologian Victor I. Tanja, agreed in a seminar that government and religious leaders should try to solve the problem amicably without the participation of foreign organizations.

Amien, whose organization boasts some 28 million members, argued that international organizations should not be involved due to their own vested interests.

Philosopher Franz Magnis Suseno, who is also a Catholic priest, added that a solution to the various problems in the former Portuguese colony could be resolved within the framework of integration.

He said that the frequent cases of violence in the youngest province stem from East Timor's struggle to catch up with rapid economic changes and from their envy of migrants, who control the local economy.

The seminar, co-sponsored by the Republika daily and the Association of Muhammadiyah Students, discussed ways to end religious conflict in the predominantly Roman Catholic East Timor, which integrated with Indonesia in 1976.

Religious tension was heightened by a spate of incidents last month when East Timorese burned down mosques and Protestant churches. They were angered by a Moslem official who allegedly described Catholicism as a "nonsense religion."

Market places were burned down, vehicles were set on fire and migrants harassed in the incidents which resulted in the arrest of more than 120 people. At least 600 Moslem migrants reportedly fled to the neighboring West Timor.

Legislator and member of the Commission on Human Rights Commission Aisyah Amini, said in the seminar that religious leaders in East Timor should "set an example" of religious harmony.

Meanwhile, in New York, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas denied Monday the claim of Portuguese President Mario Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares that Indonesia brutally disrupted the process of decolonization in East Timor in 1975.

Facts

"The Portuguese president's statement was based on false perceptions which are not supported by facts," Alatas told Indonesian reporters covering the United Nations' Special Commemorative Meeting marking the organization's 50th anniversary.

"The statement was regrettable," he said.

In his five-minute speech at the commemorative meeting on Sunday, Soares said that Portugal had been in the process of decolonizing East Timor in 1975 when Indonesia entered the colony.

To which Alatas replied: "Everybody knows that the decolonization process was halted by the fact that the then governor of East Timor, who was Portuguese, together with his staff, left the territory via Atauro Island, while the East Timorese became involved in a civil war."

The foreign minister was accompanying President Soeharto at the commemorative meeting.

East Timor plunged into civil war in 1975 after several political parties there declared the territory as part of Indonesia, while another party, Fretilin, declared independence.

Alatas said that three months after the governor left East Timor, Indonesia suggested he return to the territory in order to put an end to the civil war.

"But he never returned," Alatas said. "The Portuguese president's statement, therefore, needs to be corrected." (anr/riz)