Crude fabrication from Indonesian regime

A press release and tapes purporting to be comments made by Xanana Gusmao, leader of the East Timorese independence movement for over a decade, were released by Indonesian armed forces in Jakarta on Tuesday December 1.

Indonesian officials claim that Gusmao has affirmed East Timor is now a part of Indonesia.

The fabricated evidence came in the form of a poor quality tape recording in Portuguese and Indonesian purporting to be a conversation held last Friday between Gusmao and governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares.

In it Gusmao allegedly says that East Timor is a part of Indonesia. He says that he has started to realise the real situation in East Timor and he appealed to other Fretilin guerrillas in the forests to give up.

Mario Carrascalao, former governor of East Timor, told Portuguese journalists that the credibility of the “statement” on tape and television by Gusmao “is doubtful”.

It has been impossible to confirm the integrity of the tape recording. Gusmao has been held incommunicado since his arrest. He is reported to be under interrogation in Denpasar on the island of Bali.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to Gusmao.

In a separate statement, the military commander in East Timor said that nearly 20 close associates of Gusmao's in the pro- independence movement had been arrested following his capture.

Brigadier General Syafei was quoted in Tempo weekly as saying that the arrested were people who helped hide Gusmao but gave no further details about them. [From Pegasus.]

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