Delegation expelled from East Timor

BALI, Indonesia — On November 8, an international ecumenical delegation was expelled from East Timor. The delegation, which included Namibian MP Daniel Botha, Brian Brown of Freedom House, Australian Aboriginal poet Lionel Fogerty, Australian doctor Andrew McNaughton, Irish Senator David Norris and Bishop Soma of Nagoya, Japan, was organised by the Asia Pacific Coalition on East Timor (APCET). The following statement was issued from attorney and human rights campaigner Reed Brody, one of the US participants. As an ecumenical delegation, we went to East Timor to hold a service in commemoration of the victims of the 1991 Dili massacre. Although we were prevented from carrying out the ceremony at the Santa Cruz cemetery, we were able to light candles and to say prayers at the statue of Christo Rey. Equally important in our 24 hours, we were able to experience in a very small way what the East Timorese people must face every day under Indonesian occupation. We were constantly followed by Indonesian security. At one point, we were surrounded by police in full riot gear, and we were expelled from East Timor although we had done nothing wrong. We also met with many East Timorese who bravely told us of the escalating repression of the past weeks — of riot squads systematically breaking into people's houses, beating people in the kidneys, liver, and backs of their heads in an attempt to intimidate or incapacitate them from coming out. We will each be bringing back candles that we lit in East Timor to light candles all over the world in solidarity with the people of East Timor.

From GLW issue 211