By Jon Land
SYDNEY — Forty people gathered outside the office of the Philippines Department of Tourism here on May 31, protesting against the attempts by the Philippines government to stop the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor in Manila from going ahead. A picket of 15 people was held at the same time outside the Philippines Airways office in Brisbane.
Organised by AKSI — Indonesia Solidarity Action and the Australia East Timor Association, the protests demanded an end to the Philippines government's efforts to block the conference. A black list of 40 human rights activists and a total ban on all foreigners attending the four-day conference resulted in at least 10 international guests being deported from Manila.
Harold Moucho, an East Timorese from Sydney, was one of those deported. "When I arrived in Manila I was immediately detained by the authorities. They then questioned me for 18 hours, and detained me for a total of 30", Moucho told Green Left Weekly.
"They repeatedly asked me for the names of Fretilin leaders and other East Timorese attending the conference. They asked me if I knew whether Jose Ramos Horta, Mari Alkateri and others where still planning to come to the conference."
At first, Filipino authorities did not permit Moucho to contact the Australian Embassy; it was not until there was a change of the officers questioning him that he managed to do so. He said they appeared to be embarrassed by the way the Philippines government had handled the issue under pressure from Indonesia.
"By trying to ban all foreigners from attending the conference, they have attracted media attention from all over the world. It has become the 'big issue' they had hoped to avoid", Moucho said.
While the Australian government remained tight-lipped on the issue, a cross-party group of eight federal parliamentarians called on the Philippines government to revoke the ban on foreign participants.
The Democrats' spokesperson on foreign affairs and human rights, Senator Vicki Bourne, also asked in parliament whether, if such a conference were held in Australia, participants wishing to attend from overseas would be denied entry.
Foreign minister Gareth Evans replied that they would be allowed in. But in the last nine months at least three people have been denied entry into Australia to attend conferences on human rights and social justice issues. Last August a representative of OPM (West Papua Freedom Movement) was refused entry to attend the People-to-People Conference. In April, Bernard Tunim, foreign minister in the Bougainville Interim Government, and Barry McElduff, a Sinn Fein councillor, were refused entry to speak at the International Green Left Conference and other public meetings throughout Australia.