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History of Embassy actions
[What follows is extracts from a report issued by Reuters on December 7 1995 which documents actions and attempts to seek aylum by East Timorese in Jakarta since 1986.]
June 24 -- The four students in the Finnish embassy give up their demands for asylum and leave following government assurances of their safety.
July 2 -- The three East Timorese in the Swedish embassy abandon asylum bid after receiving a government letter saying they would not be prosecuted.
December 29 -- The seven who broke into the Finnish and Swedish embassies in June fly to Portugal. Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said they were allowed to go on humanitarian grounds.
November 24 -- After 12-day sit-in in front of world's media, the 29 protesters leave for asylum in Portugal.
September 29 -- The five asylum-seekers leave the British embassy for Portugal.
November 7 -- Eight East Timorese run through the gate of the Dutch embassy and seek political asylum, only days before the fourth anniversary of the Dili massacre.
November 8 -- Helped by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the eight leave for asylum in Portugal after little more than 30 hours in the Dutch embassy.
November 14 -- Twenty-one East Timorese climb a fence into the Japanese embassy shortly before the start of the annual Asia-Pacific economic summit in Osaka, Japan.
November 15 -- The Japanese embassy group leaves for Portugal, which says it will accept all East Timorese asylum- seekers.
November 16 -- Five East Timorese break into the French embassy and seek refuge in Portugal "or another country which could give them political asylum."
November 17 -- The five in the French embassy leave for Portugal. Foreign diplomats fear speed with which recent asylum bids have been resolved will encourage further attempts.
November 20 -- Four East Timorese enter French embassy. Portugal accuses Indonesia of encouraging asylum bids to remove opponents and ease internal pressure in East Timor.
November 21 -- The French embassy four head for Lisbon on a now set route, with ICRC help. Alatas says the asylum bids are instigated from abroad. Lisbon calls such claims "absurd".
December 7 -- Fifty-eight break into the Dutch embassy and about 40 enter the Russian embassy on the same day 20 years ago that Indonesian forces invaded East Timor after the Portuguese left.