Planificación de la investigación

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

1) BRIEF SUMMARY

Between May 9 and 11, 1991 the University of Oporto in Portugal came alive with debates on the fate of East Timor. Promoted by its Chancellery for the third year in a row, the Seminar attracted Parliamentarians, journalists, jurists, Timorese national convergence representatives, East Timorese, political personalities and individuals. That year the motto of the seminar was

“Complementary responsibilities on the same fight for justice, peace and respect for

international law,” and was officially open by the highest Portuguese authority: the President of the Republic, accompanied by ambassadors of Brazil and African Portuguese speaking

countries, and Portuguese government representatives.

2) THE OPENING SESSION

The opening ceremony of this III Seminar on East Timor was followed by a debate on “The European Community / Indonesia / East Timor” and an intervention of the Portuguese European Parliamentarians and international journalists. The next day it was hard working sessions with East Timorese in preparation for the future, with the intervention of the

“Parliament Ad Hoc Committee for East Timor”, representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the National Convergence, and international solidarity groups, followed by a session on the international public opinion, governments and international bodies.

The last day was occupied with future preparations of the support work, seconded by Lord Avebury, as a founder of the “Parliamentarians for East Timor”, a written address by Michel Robert (of the Sorbonne University) and members of the National Convergence, as well as members of the Christian groups and solidarity support groups. With the presence of Portugal’s President of the Republic and foreign dignitaries, the seminar started under the assurance that:

“Portugal will defend the right to self determination and independence for the people of East Timor until they actually achieve it.”

The first session had the participation among others of the representatives in Portugal of the Timorese National Convergence, representing FRETILIN and UDT, who stressed the importance of the last peace proposals from the guerrilla commander Xanana Gusmão.

The co-ordinator of the Seminar, Professor Barbedo de Magalhães had a fiery speech stating the parallels between the invasion of Kuwait and East Timor, the speaker mentioned also the end of the two powers Cold War, the increased freedom and democracy bouts everywhere from Asia to Africa. Going on to criticise Indonesia for its brutal, murderous military regime erected on top of at least half a million dead and 1, 500, 000 political prisoners Tapols, Professor Barbedo expressed his revolt against the support given to that regime by the USA, Japan, Australia and some European countries.

Criticising the Pope’s position about East Timor, at the same his Holiness was visiting Portugal for the Fátima celebrations, Professor Barbedo said that:

“It hurts that after fifteen years of genocide, the Holy See has kept its silence on East Timor, seldom broken by some watered down preoccupation on its cultural identity. The retention of three hundred letters from Roman Catholics bishops expressing their support to the proposal of a referendum as suggested by Mgr. Ximenes Belo, Bishop of Dili, was as far as we know, ordered by the Vatican, and it horrifies us such methods are being used to silence a crime against mankind like the one perpetrated against the people of East Timor.

It is not only this silence, orchestrated by the Vatican, its Press Corps, the Secretariat but also the manipulation of Catholic publications where East Timor is mentioned as part of Indonesia where nothing is happening. We understand the interests of the Vatican in trying to protect the flourishing minority Indonesian Catholic Church in the most

populated Muslim nation, but we cannot accept that the Church of Rome will sacrifice the Church and people of East Timor in order to please those interests.

On the eve of the arrival of His Holiness, the Pope, I endorse a document already delivered to the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon recognising the “indefeasible right of the East Timorese to self determination, asking the Indonesian government to withdraw without delay all its troops from the territory and asking His Holiness to use His voice on the international arena to defend the legitimate rights of the people of East Timor, whose blood and suffering so much hurts our consciences.”

In fact, during the next couple of days, incidents and demonstrations regarding East Timor marred the Pope’s visit. The first was a Press Release mentioning Timor as the 27th Indonesian province; another was a speech mentioning the great Portuguese Discoveries from America to Indonesia.

On the second day of his visit, the Pope was forced to concede to an interviewer from the Portuguese Catholic Radio Broadcaster “Rádio Renascença” his “deep worry over East Timor

whose problems have to be solved according to the principles of justice and in accordance with Human and National Rights.”

This was the first time ever that the Pope admitted such a contentious point. UDT (Timorese Democratic Union Party) remembered the request of the Bishop of Dili, Mgr. Ximenes Belo: “Do not let the East Timorese die” and went on to stress the importance for Portugal of keeping its language and culture alive in the region.

The Portuguese European Parliamentarians and journalists concluded the first session with a vivid debate where the actual situation of the debates on East Timor, and the strategies for future intervention in the Strasbourg Parliament were discussed. The actual membership of Portugal in the EEC has markedly improved a more vocal attitude of the European Parliament, yet not proven by facts, such as arms embargoes. It was mentioned that all European

countries, including Portugal have a lively trade with Indonesia, vital to the Jakarta regime but not essential for the EEC.

3) AUSTRALIA’S PRESENTATION

In the afternoon session of the second day, there was a round table on international public opinion, and the main speaker was the Australian Journalists’ Association spokesperson for the Seminar who read some messages from Australian entities. On his speech, the author of this work, stated:

“When I left East Timor on June 1975, I left there all my belongings on a trip to Portugal, and I refused to accept the voices of those who were then predicting the worse. When I was ready to return in August, I am confronted by the lack of access to East Timor due to the start of the civil war. Moreover, until this day, I have not been able to return.

“On that same year, the Australian colony of Papua New Guinea became independent.

Today is a minor player towards the Indonesian giant neighbouring nation, and has long stopped protecting the pro independence movement of OPM (Organisi Papua Merdeka) that since the 60’s have been fighting for the independence of the western side of the island, annexed by Indonesia.

“Similarly, the East Timorese have been fighting since 1975 for the independence of their nation from the Javanese yoke. I want to state here that there is a minority in Australia that feels offended and insulted by their country’s attitude towards East Timor, since the economic and political interests are stronger than the need for defending human rights.

Most journalists are dominated by a media concentration where the mass media depend on the capitalistic concentration of power around a few, to survive, and even if they

wanted they would not be able to write freely about East Timor. Most mediums in Australia pretend to ignore the world and they do not even disguise the fact.

“A xenophobic parochialism still pervades the Australian media, and although we,

Australians claim to be the most multicultural nation on earth we still live with our strong emotional ties with the UK, our ideological ties to the USA and our linguistic ties with Canada. Although we are in a geopolitical area of South East Asia and the Pacific, we pretend that we are in Europe. In future decades we will become more Asianized but in the meantime our mentality is still very much a western one.

“The case of East Timor has been taken up by politicians, academic and by the person on the street, but it always looks as being too far away when compared with atrocities in Chile, Cambodia, Latin America or Africa. However Timor is only 400 miles away from Darwin, in the Northern Territory and it is always easier to defend the Human Rights of those who are further afield and that mean not much to us in civilisation terms.

“That is the reason why I decided to base my presentation to this Seminar on written statements by Australian politicians, individuals and support groups. Before I finish my presentation, let me assure you that there is a strong message coming from the

Australian Aborigines, that fabulous race who more than 60 thousand years ago invented the ecological balance, and that up to this day still does not have the most basic right.

From them we receive a message that identifies their fight with the neighbouring cousins of East Timorese.”

Messages from Australia: