Religious figures call for an end to Timor tension

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)