Timorese youths call for integration

Timorese youths call for integration

YOGYAKARTA: Some fifty members from East Timorese
prointegration groups held a modest ceremony on Tuesday at
Yogyakarta's East Timor Students Dormitory to celebrate what they
called "the 25th anniversary of East Timor's integration to
Indonesia".

Participants of the ceremony, residing in Yogyakarta and its
surrounding towns, sang the national anthem Indonesia Raya as
they raised the Indonesian red-and-white flag.

Bernardino Mariano Sousa of the prointegration Uni Timor
Aswain (UNTAS) led the brief commemoration.

During their ceremony several youths yelled their allegiance
to the Republic of Indonesia and pledged to continue the struggle
for the return of East Timor.

"The struggle for the return of East Timor is a must, as we
can't let our people in East Timor fall into uncertainty under
UNTAET's authority," the chief of the prointegration group
Forbalott, Arnaldo Basmeri dos Reis Araujo, said, referring to
the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor.

Meanwhile, Mariano expressed his belief that most East
Timorese refugees would prefer to be registered as Indonesian
citizens than living in East Timor in an uncertain economic and
political situation.(44)