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)