Three East Timorese enter Dutch Embassy

JAKARTA (JP): Three young East Timorese entered the Dutch Embassy yesterday and are demanding political asylum in Portugal.

"They have asked for political asylum in Portugal," the embassy's first secretary, E.J. Schmidt, said yesterday.

It is believed they entered the premises, located on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, early yesterday morning by climbing the metal fence which surrounds the compound.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor continues to be an internationally contentious issue despite integration into Indonesia in 1976.

Schmidt said the three youths' request for asylum had been passed on and it now depends on Lisbon to bring the matter to a swift end.

This latest incident continues the spate of "fence-jumping" by East Timorese into various embassies in Jakarta.

While the East Timorese youths' demands for asylum have been forwarded to a number of countries including France, none of the requests have been accepted. The youths have had to opt for Lisbon instead.

Since September 1995, 72 Timorese have left for Portugal.

This is the second time the Dutch Embassy has had to play host to East Timorese asylum seekers. In November, eight youths managed to rush through the embassy's gates. They left for Portugal two days later.

This latest incident comes just days after another group unsuccessfully attempted to enter the German Embassy.(mds)