Xanana calls for peace, dialog in East Timor

Xanana calls for peace, dialog in East Timor

JAKARTA (JP): Jailed rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana"
Gusmao appealed for peace on Wednesday, but said he could not let
East Timorese be slaughtered like animals.

"I renew my appeal for peace, dialogue and reconciliation,"
Xanana said in a statement read by his lawyer, Johnson Panjaitan
of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI).

However, Xanana added: "I am obliged to continue to ask the
defenseless people of East Timor to refuse to allow themselves to
be slaughtered like animals, although I know that the Armed
Forces (ABRI) will continue supporting the militias."

Minister of Justice Muladi said last Friday he would return
Xanana from his special detention house in Salemba, Central
Jakarta, to Cipinang Prison in East Jakarta if he did not retract
the call to arms he made last week.

Xanana later explained the call was for the East Timorese to
exercise self-defense against prointegration militias.

PBHI executive director Hendardi said "removing Xanana to
Cipinang Prison would be a wrong decision (and) should be
suspected as part of a violent conspiracy to sabotage the process
of seeking a peaceful solution in East Timor".

"In the context of the peaceful solution process, it is
essential the government stand by its decision to place our
client, Xanana Gusmao, in the special detention house in
Salemba," Hendardi said.

Hendardi added that Xanana's call to arms must be placed
within the context of self-defense.

"He is not going to retract his statement because it was only
his reaction to the violence and the climate of war that has been
building up in East Timor," Hendardi said.

Also on Wednesday, Muladi said he planned to meet personally
with Xanana to ask for clarification about the latter's
statement. "(Xanana) did say 'insurrection'... I'm going to check
with him, just wait in the next one or two days," Muladi said
after meeting with President B.J. Habibie.

Muladi confirmed that Xanana would also meet with Minister of
Defense Gen. Wiranto.

Xanana made his statement shortly after an attack on
proindependence supporters in Liquica, some 40 kilometers west of
the provincial capital of Dili, last week. The attack allegedly
was carried out by military-backed prointegration militia
members.

The military insists there were only five people killed in the
incident, but Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo said at
least 25 people were killed in the violence.

Xanana, who is serving a 20-year jail term for plotting
against the state and illegal possession of firearms, also
appealed to ABRI "to adopt a position of political maturity, of
greater openness and humanity as today's world demands".

He also paid tribute to Habibie, who in January said he would
let go of East Timor if the government's wide-ranging autonomy
proposal was rejected by the East Timorese.

Xanana said that between January and March 31 this year, 21
people were killed in East Timor and more than 18,000 people fled
the troubled province for fear of further violence.

He also said that weeks before Belo and Baucau Bishop Basilio
Do Nascimento held preliminary meetings to further the
reconciliation process in March, the chief of the Udayana
Regional Military Command overseeing East Timor, Maj. Gen. Adam
Damiri, met with several militia leaders in Bali, where it was
decided to set up the Forces for the Defense of Integration, a
militia estimated to consist of 2,000 armed men.

"To talk about reconciliation while the population is under
threat and mourns its dead would be inhumane," Xanana said.

Earlier in the day, a group of 50 East Timorese youths rallied
in front of the United States Embassy in Central Jakarta to
demand Washington's involvement in a peaceful settlement for the
troubled former Portuguese colony.

Meanwhile, the rector of Dili-based East Timor University,
Theo T. Balella, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that two
students from the School of Social and Political Sciences were
abducted by unidentified people in Suai, some 200 kilometers
south of Dili, on Tuesday afternoon.

The students, Joao Ximenes Soares and Bernardino Simao, were
riding a motorcycle to a community health center in the area.

The two are among 570 students currently involved in field
studies in the regencies of Suai and Ambeno.

Apart from the two students, the university also received
reports that a number of other students were assaulted on Tuesday
in Suai, but details were not available.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the East Timor Police, Capt.
Widodo, said that eight houses believed to be owned by
proindependence supporters were vandalized in Maliana, some 80
kilometers south of Dili, on Wednesday.

Maliana residents said on Wednesday that prointegration groups
continued to force residents to support their cause, compelling
them to fly red and white flags in front of their homes.

Also on Wednesday, six armed men reportedly attacked a
military post in Laurala, some 30 kilometers south of Dili. One
of the assailants was shot, but escaped aboard a motorcycle
driven by one of the other attackers. Four other assailants
escaped toward the forest in Aileo regency.

Military personnel found six guns which were left behind by
the assailants, according to deputy military commander Col. S.
Mudjiono. (33/byg/prb)