Timor meeting in Austria

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