Timorese refugees coming to grips with 'real situation'

Timorese refugees coming to grips with 'real situation'

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Chief of the Udayana Military Command
Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri said pro-integration East Timorese could
be divided into three groups in their efforts to pursue their
struggle -- realists, conservatives and opportunists.

According to Kiki, whose command is responsible for security
in East Nusa Tenggara, more and more "refugees" are now more
conscious of being law abiding and can differentiate between
"doing something for the sake of the struggle and doing something
which is against the law".

He said the realists are those who are willing to accept the
situation and work for their cause from within the political
means available in East Timor, including setting up political
parties in the former province which lean towards Indonesia.

The conservatives still demand that the United Nations
acknowledge that violations occurred during last year's ballot
and demand that they be given 21 percent of the territory in East
Timor.

"But some from this group have shifted to become realists,"
Kiki remarked.

The final group, the opportunists, only try to exploit the
situation, including the presence of some 130,000 East Timorese
refugees sheltered across East Nusa Tenggara.

"This (the exploitation) is occurring in Kupang and Atambua
where you see such things as extortion," Kiki remarked.

Speaking to journalists here on Thursday, Kiki also said the
latest situation in various refugee camps in West Timor was quiet
following the arrest of notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres
in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"This morning (Thursday) at about 7 a.m. I checked, and just
now one of my staff did the same and reports were that everything
was quiet in Atambua and Kupang," Kiki said.

He admitted that there had been a minor disturbance when news
initially spread about Eurico's arrest, however, the situation
was soon calm.

Eurico was arrested by police after he was named as a suspect
in last year's violence in East Timor.

Buru

Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, former East Timor governor Jose
Abilio Soares has opposed President Abdurrahman Wahid's
suggestion to send East Timor refugees to the island of Buru,
saying that the refugees deserve the right to choose their own
place to live in Indonesia.

"We are now in West Timor (East Nusa Tenggara), so just let us
live there and help us build our life there. As Timorese, we have
the right to live in Timor. No one can move us from there. Not
even God," he told reporters on Wednesday.

The President said on Wednesday in Ottawa, Canada, during his
overseas trip that the government would relocate the 130,000 East
Timorese refugees to Buru island (Maluku) in order that they
could not have contact with East Timorese in Dili.

Hard-liners of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were
incarcerated on Buru island in the 1960s.

Abilio briefed reporters after meeting with Yogyakarta
Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X at the gubernatorial office
complex in Kepatihan.

Abilio said he visited the sultan to express gratitude for the
30 sets of knockdown bamboo houses for the East Timor refugees in
Atambua early this year. "I also asked him to take care of East
Timorese living in Yogyakarta."

Abilio blamed the international community, in this case the
United Nations, for events in East Timor, saying that all the
disasters in the former 27th province of Indonesia were the
result of an international conspiracy to destroy Indonesia. "The
direct victim of the conspiracy is us, the Timorese people," he
said.

That is why, Abilio said, that the disarmament of pro-Jakarta
militia was the responsibility of the United Nations, not the
government of Indonesia. "If we talk about militia disarmament,
we must also talk about the Fretilin's men. Therefore, it is the
UN that is to be held responsible," he said.

He also blamed the UN for the riots that occurred after the
August 1999 ballot offered by then president Habibie. "Former
president Habibie alone cannot be held responsible for the
mayhem.

"The vote was held under international pressure. They (the UN)
engineered the balloting in such a way that the result that came
out was different from what was expected. Habibie was forced to
accept what the rest of the world wanted. He had no choice
because of our economic dependence on the international
community," he said.

Abilio's statements were in response to militia leader Eurico
Guterres' statement that Habibie should take responsibility for
what happened in East Timor after the August 1999 ballot. "The
only party responsible for the destruction in East Timor is the
UN," he added. (swa/zen)