wfn.org | Concerns about violence rise as East Timor vote nears

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 28, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-33-71B{304}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodists and other church members should urge their legislators or
governments to pressure Indonesia to stop all forms of violence in East
Timor, an ecumenical group says.

The appeal comes from the Humanitarian Project on East Timor, a member of
the National Council of Churches' East Timor Working Group.

Rebecca Asedillo, an East Timor activist and former United Methodist
missionary involved with the working group, said she has become extremely
concerned about the situation in the Southeast Asian nation, which has been
under occupation by Indonesia since 1975. The United Nations has organized a
vote on independence for the territory on Aug. 8.

"It has been obvious that the human rights and security situation has been
rapidly deteriorating for some time now," Asedillo said. "Paramilitary
violence against innocent civilians suspected of having sympathies for or of
espousing the independence cause is at the top of my concern." Indonesian
President B.J. Habibie seems to have little control over these paramilitary
leaders, she added.

She sees a parallel between East Timor and what happened in her native
country, the Philippines, in the late 1980s, "when even the much-respected
Cory Aquino was helpless in the face of right- wing vigilante groups
attacking civilians..."

Military minds are behind the Indonesian groups, she believes, "but they let
the undisciplined, untrained paramilitary do the dirty work for them (and)
commit the barbarous and savage acts they do."

The U.S. Congress has approved a contribution of $6.5 million to the U.N.
trust fund for the Aug. 8 vote on autonomy, but the East Timor Action
Network, based in Washington, has stressed that more than money is needed to
ensure a free and fair vote.

The network is urging Congress and the Clinton administration to pressure
the Indonesian military to withdraw its troops and dismantle the
paramilitary groups before the election.

In the House of Representatives, legislation supporting these goals includes
House Resolution No. 97, which would freeze U.S. military assistance and
arms transfers to Indonesia until its military presence is reduced in East
Timor and paramilitary groups are disbanded; and House Resolution No. 1063,
the International Military Training Transparency and Accountability Act,
which would close loopholes allowing combat training to the Indonesia
military.

In the Senate, Resolution No. 96 calls upon the Clinton administration to
intensify its efforts to persuade the Indonesian government to shut down the
paramilitary groups and grant full access to East Timor, allowing
international human rights and humanitarian organizations and the press to
enter.

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