Timor forum to go ahead despite ban

Timor forum to go ahead despite ban

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): A coalition of human rights groups said yesterday they would go ahead with their conference on East Timor despite the Malaysian government's threat to take legal action to stop it.

"We believe our conference is legal," Sanusi Othman, one of the organizers of the second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET), told a news conference.

The conference is due to take place from today to Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday the government would examine legal avenues to block the conference, saying it would harm ties with neighboring Indonesia.

East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976. The United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as the administering authority for the territory.

"We can't spend all our time guessing what the government is going to do," conference spokesperson Debbie Stothard said. "We have a few contingencies, but we just have to hope for the best."

Asked why Malaysia was chosen to host the East Timor conference, Stothard said: "This is happening in our front yard. We can't close our eyes and stop our ears to what is happening in front of us."

She added it was a milestone in the Malaysia's maturation as a democracy that the conference was being held in the country.

"For too long, people in ASEAN have not had the opportunity to talk about human rights," she said. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

One of its principles is not to criticize a neighbor's domestic policies.

Stothard said about 150 people from 20 countries and 70 organizations were expected to gather to denounce Jakarta's rule of East Timor.

She said a number of would-be participants, including this year's joint Nobel Peace laureates, political activist Jose Ramos-Horta and Carlos Belo, a Roman Catholic bishop, were discouraged from coming to the conference because of Malaysia's opposition.

On Wednesday immigration authorities refused to allow Renato Constantino Jr Filipino of the Philippines into the country to attend the conference. He organized the first APCET conference in Manila in 1994.