Timor meeting in Austria

On Friday, June 2, 30 East Timorese leaders began a meeting in Bur Schlaining Schloss, a small town in Austria about 100 kms of Vienna. The participants include 16 East Timorese leaders from Indonesia, like the Bishop of Dili Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, who came as an observer, and 14 East Timorese from overseas, including Ramos Horta. The latter group represent two factions -- the moderates and those who persist in opposing integration. All the participants have come as individuals invited by the United Nations.

Supported by media elements abroad who intentionally distort the facts, some East Timorese living overseas still fail to realize that the future of East Timor lies in the territory's integration with Indonesia, a commitment which was taken on by the East Timorese people themselves.

It is in this context that the meeting in Austria can help to realize that commitment and ensure that development efforts can be stepped up, unhampered by political maneuvers that can slow the pace of efforts intended to help the territory to catch up with other regions in Indonesia.

We are confident that the East Timorese representatives from Indonesia, and the clear-headed ones among those coming from overseas, will be able to use this gathering as a momentum to end the integration issue, which will only harm the East Timorese living abroad as they will be used as tools by anti-Indonesia elements abroad.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta