wfn.org | Comments by E. Timor Church Leader, CWS Appeal

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

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227

105NCC9/28/99 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EAST TIMORESE CHURCH LEADER CALLS FOR SAFE REPATRIATION OF 
REFUGEES, INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL TO BRING KILLERS TO JUSTICE
CWS $1 Million Appeal Will Assist Refugees in West Timor

 Sept. 28, 1999, NEW YORK ---- As a United Nations-
sponsored peacekeeping force begins to restore peace in East 
Timor, East Timorese church leader the Rev. Arlindo Marcal 
is calling for the safe repatriation of refugees, for 
pressure to be put on the Indonesian government to ratify 
the independence vote in East Timor and for an international 
tribunal to bring killers to justice.

Meanwhile, Church World Service, the humanitarian 
response ministry of the National Council of Churches 
already operational in Indonesia with a food-for-work 
program in Sulawesi, is seeking $1 million to provide 
emergency relief to refugees who were forcibly removed from 
their homes by Indonesian militias.  An estimated 214,000 
internally displaced people are being sheltered in 31 camps 
in West Timor.  A CWS assessment team suspects there are 
many more refugees who cannot yet be counted because of 
inaccessibility and lack of security.

 The Rev. Marcal (pronounced Mar-sahl) is Moderator of 
the Christian Church of East Timor, that country's 
Protestant ecumenical council.  He spoke by phone on Friday 
(Sept. 24) from Toronto, where he is studying, to church 
leaders and reporters.  Although he left East Timor in July 
and has had to watch the tragic situation unfold  from afar, 
he anticipated the potential for violence and met with 
churches in West Timor before his departure to ask them to 
assist and protect East Timorese people.  He said he may 
return sooner than the one year he was supposed to be in 
Toronto given the turmoil that has left his country 
destroyed and left people without churches and church 
leaders.

 The Rev. Marcal stressed the prophetic role the church 
has played and continues to play in East Timor.  "The church 
has not been active in political issues, but in human rights 
issues," he said.  "It is the only institution left that has 
continued to defend and support the people."  The Rev. 
Marcal was among the first Protestant church leaders to call 
for a referendum on East Timorese self-determination.

 The Rev. Marcal also encouraged church leaders here in 
the U.S. to use their prophetic position to give moral and 
economic support to the East Timorese as they begin to 
rebuild.  "Your support in this difficult situation is very 
important.  It will help us to feel not alone.  We hope you 
will help us to rebuild our churches in East Timor."

While international relief agencies have been unable to 
work in East Timor, CWS staff in Indonesia, working with the 
Church of Kupang, is currently assessing the situation in 
West Timor.  CWS will begin its response by providing tents, 
blankets, medicine, food and bedding for 3,000 families 
(9,000 people).  CWS may also supply hygiene and health kits 
as needed.

CWS is also prepared to support other efforts of the 
Action by Churches Together (ACT) International network and 
may expand this appeal as longer-term recovery and 
rehabilitation efforts become clearer.

 Contributions may be sent to Church World Service, 
Attn. East Timor Violence, 28606 Phillips Street, PO Box 
968, Elkhart, IN 46515.  Telephone: 1-800-297-1516, ext. 
222. For more information and updates and/or to make an on-
line contribution, go to: http://www.churchworldservice.org

 Meanwhile, the NCC continues to advocate for the UN to 
maintain a presence in East Timor to deter further killings, 
torture and rampage.  Church leaders, both Catholic and 
Protestant, have been among those killed and driven from 
their homes and the Rev. Marcal knew many of them.  Yet the 
closest to him personally was the Rev. Francisco de 
Vasconcelos Ximenes, head of the Christian Church in East 
Timor, who died on September 10 after being shot by militia 
members on the road to Baucau.  He had been sheltering 
approximately 100 refugees in Hosana Church, Dili, and a 
group had decided to leave Dili because they feared for 
their safety.  The Rev. Ximenes had guided an NCC delegation 
to East Timor more than two years ago.

 Of the Rev. Ximenes, the Rev. Marcal said, "He was one 
of our leaders, one of our good pastors.  He was preparing 
to be the next moderator.  I am very sad of (his death)."  
Yet the Rev. Ximenes' death proves that "although we are a 
small minority, we also sacrificed for the independence of 
East Timor," according to the Rev. Marcal.

 The Rev. Marcal expressed hope even in the midst of 
many such deaths and what he and many of his countrypeople 
see as their "betrayal by the United Nations and 
international community" as they were reassured they could 
vote freely but then abandoned when violence ensued.  His 
hope remains, he said, because he can finally see 
independence on the horizon after 500 years of colonization 
followed by years of Indonesian occupation.

 That is, if the Indonesian government and parliament 
will recognize East Timorese independence.  The Rev. Marcal 
said this is one of the issues the United States government 
and the international community need to be addressing right 
now, along with the safe repatriation of refugees as soon as 
possible and supporting an international tribunal to try 
militia members who killed and rampaged following the 
independence vote.

 He said a peacekeeping force also needs to be poised on 
the border between East and West Timor as well as within 
East Timor because people in West Timor and Indonesia 
"continue to fear for their safety and their lives."

 Although East Timor will "face a lot of problems to 
establish democracy, justice and peace," the Rev. Marcal 
said, "independence is the beginning of our lives.  Now we 
start our real life."
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