RI reject Lisbon's accusation about asylum seekers
RI reject Lisbon's accusation about asylum seekers
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has accused Portugal of exploiting the
issue of East Timorese youths flocking to foreign embassies to
request political asylum for its own political advantage.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ghaffar Fadyl,
in the latest round of trading accusations with Portugal, said
Lisbon has been hurling false accusations at Indonesia.
Lisbon's statement that Indonesia had sought to use the flight
of asylum-seekers from East Timor as a political safety valve was
"groundless", Fadyl said.
He also said yesterday that Indonesia has never exerted any
pressure on East Timorese to flee the province.
Besides, he said, those who left represented only a small
number of East Timorese people.
Reuters reported on Monday Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio
Guterres as accusing Indonesia of creating the conditions "for a
generalized exit of Timorese with the object of easing internal
pressures".
"That's baseless. There is no tension in East Timor. It's
Portugal which continues to exploit the situation in East Timor
for their own advantage," Ghaffar said here yesterday.
Meanwhile, the four East Timorese youths who climbed the fence
into the French Embassy to seek asylum left for Portugal last
night under the auspices of the Jakarta office of the
International Commission of the Red Cross.
It was the second penetration of the French Embassy by a group
of East Timorese asylum seekers in less than a week and the fifth
sanctuary bid at Jakarta embassies in two months.
Henri Fournier of the International Commission of the Red
Cross told The Jakarta Post the four left for Lisbon on a flight
via Amsterdam, the same route taken by five East Timorese who
sought sanctuary in the French Embassy last week.
The French Embassy declined to comment on the asylum bid.
Fournier said the International Commission of the Red Cross
was merely helping the Indonesian and French governments to solve
the problem by facilitating the departure of the asylum seekers
to the country they wished to enter.
Foreign missions in Jakarta have boosted security to deter
East Timorese asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, the district court in Maliana, East Timor, sought a
five-year jail sentence for Sanusi Abubakar, accused of sparking
recent religious tension in the province with statements which
denigrated the local Roman Catholic community.
The prosecutor, who presented on Monday eight witnesses at a
trial session in Maliana district court presided over by Judge
Sinansius Misnan, said Sanusi had violated Chapter 156 of the
Criminal Code on blasphemy.
The trial session was adjourned until tomorrow to hear the
defendant's response.(rms/yac)