wfn.org | East Timor Remembered

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.apc.org>]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3252 notes).

Note 3251 by UMNS on Oct. 23, 1996 at 16:35 Eastern (2925 characters).

SEARCH: East Timor, Nobel Peace Prize, United Methodist, Board of
Global Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news
agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville,
Tenn., New York, and Washington.

Ministries
CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                            537(10-71B){3251}
          New York (212)870-3803                     Oct. 23, 1996

Peace prize refocuses
attention on East Timor

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize in
October to two people from East Timor should refocus needed
attention on the conflict between that small island and Indonesia,
according to a United Methodist Board of Ministries executive
here.
     Anne Unander -- who visited East Timor as part of a National
Council of Churches delegation in January 1995 -- pointed to the
1996 General Conference resolution on the former Portuguese colony
as a guide for action by United Methodists.
     The resolution supports the East Timorese people and calls on
church agencies and ecumenical bodies to increase awareness of the
ongoing crisis there among congregations, the general public and
U.S. policymakers.
     The Norwegian Nobel committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
to Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta,
an independence campaigner, for their efforts to end years of
oppression and violence in their homeland.
     The committee bluntly accused Indonesia, which invaded and
annexed East Timor in the 1970s, of "systematically oppressing the
people" there.
     Belo, who leads about 750,000 Catholics in East Timor,
continues to live there but Ramos-Horta lives in exile. When he
represented East Timor at the United Nations, Ramos-Horta occupied
desk space at the United Methodist Office for the United Nations.
The Board of Global Ministries' Women's Division also provided
some funds to help publish his book, "FUNU: Unfinished Saga of
East Timor."
     The General Conference resolution urges the U.S. and other
governments to cooperate with the United Nations to bring self-
determination and peace to East Timor. While such efforts have
failed in the past, U.N. representatives and diplomats from
Portugal and Indonesia are expected to meet in December, according
to the New York Times.
     Unander characterized East Timor as a rugged, underdeveloped
country overwhelmed by Indonesia's military presence. "We didn't
have an experience of violence, just an experience of control,"
she said about her visit there. "We kind of knew we were under
surveillance at all times."
     About 90 percent of the East Timorese are Christian, with a
Catholic majority and Protestant minority. Indonesia's plan of
"trans-migration," transplanting people from other parts of that
nation to East Timor, according to Unander, has resulted in
religious tension since most transplants are Muslim.
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