wfn.org | Church Leaders Strategize About East Timor

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

Church Leaders Strategize about East Timor
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Internet: wendym@ncccusa.org

Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

NCC11/7/97  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHURCH LEADERS STRATEGIZE ABOUT EAST TIMOR DURING WEEKEND 
RETREAT

NEW YORK , Nov. 7 ---- A group of national church leaders 
plans to raise the National Council of Churches' (NCC) East 
Timor Campaign to a new level in coming months.

The decision to step up their advocacy and education 
efforts was reached by a group of approximately 30 church 
leaders, denominational representatives, activists and East 
Timorese, led by NCC President Melvin G. Talbert, who gathered 
for a "National Faith-Based Strategy Retreat on East Timor" 
held October 31 to November 2 in Baltimore, Maryland.

"There are a growing number of church leaders developing 
a passion about the oppression and injustices suffered by the 
people in East Timor and we are refusing to believe we cannot 
do anything about it," said Bishop Talbert, a United Methodist 
Bishop.  "We believe the United States government is turning a 
deaf ear to the East Timorese people's struggle for self-
determination.  Our government is allowing concerns about 
corporate investments in Indonesia to take precedence over the 
human and civil rights of a suffering people."

The East Timor Campaign of the NCC plans to focus its 
platform on four dimensions: coordination and networking among 
religious and activist communities, raising the visibility of 
the East Timor issue, advocacy with the U.S. government, and 
strengthening relationships between the churches in the U.S. 
and East Timor.  Bishop Talbert said he and other 
denominational leaders will also encourage their own 
communions to pass strong resolutions on this issue.  "The 
time is right since the NCC's Friendship Press mission study 
materials next year will be on Indonesia," he said.

The retreat grew out of a June 1996 NCC Consultation on 
East Timor held in New York City.  Additionally, recent 
visitors to East Timor, including Bishop Talbert and an NCC 
delegation who visited in August, emphasized the worsening 
human rights situation, increased pressure on Nobel Peace 
Laureate Bishop Belo and the Church, and the pervasive climate 
of fear and intimidation faced by the East Timorese on a daily 
basis.

Upon his return from East Timor in September, Bishop 
Talbert reported, "I was stunned by the obvious oppression of 
the people of East Timor.  The Indonesian government, with the 
support of its military, is choking the East Timorese to 
death."

Indonesia invaded and occupied East Timor starting in 
1975, causing the deaths of about 200,000 people, fully a 
third of the population.  Retreat participants unanimously 
affirmed that human rights issues and NCC advocacy should be 
seen in the context of self-determination of the East Timorese 
people.

"We have to find a way to keep this issue on the front 
burner," Bishop Talbert said.  We want to see the East 
Timorese people supported by our churches and our government."

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