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We do not accept integration

Petition from the Youth of East Timor

[The following document is a translated version of the petition presented to the Russian Ambassador by the East Timorese participants in the demonstration in the Russian embassy compound on December 7. A similar petition was presented to the Dutch Ambassador.]

Introduction.

This day marks twenty years since the invasion of our homeland by the troops of the aggressor, the Suharto regime. This day marks twenty years of our struggle for independence, our struggle against the troops of the Suharto regime. And for all of these twenty years of struggle, we and our people have been hunted, tortured, killed, arrested and exiled. And for all of these twenty years, our suffering, our unending suffering, has been forgotten by the nations of the world, including Russia.

And for the last twenty years we have exhausted all our means of struggle to show to the whole world, to the international organisations, that our country has been occupied illegally, that our people have been massacred inhumanely, that our mothers have been raped and killed. And on this day, too, we have realised that it seems that there is not one nation in the world, not one government in the world, including that of Russia, which has been able to understand our aspirations, to understand our suffering and to understand the reality we have faced over our journey of the last 20 years. And because of all this, we have decided to enter the Russian embassy. Our aim is to convey to his excellency the Russian ambassador our realities, our hopes and our demands. We hope that you, Mr Ambassador, will understand our position and will pass on this petition to the United Nations and to the Russian government, and that this petition will then receive the consideration it is due according to international law.

Long before we took the decision to jump the fence of your country's embassy, we realised that if we did so we would be accused by the mouthpieces of the Suharto regime as people without shame, people who only want to go overseas without paying, people with no sense of nationalism or patriotism, and all such accusations routinely made by Ali Alatas. We realised all of this.

And at the same time, Your Excellency, we realised that entering your embassy in this way, by jumping over the fence, would disturb the tranquility and the smooth administration of your embassy. We realised all of that, and we thought that Your Excellency and your staff would not be too happy to accept our presence. However, we have been forced to take this action, because:

Regardless of any economic, political, military and strategic interests, the government of Russia has a moral responsibility to respect and actively participate in all efforts for the resolution of conflicts between countries and states. We are convinced that if all the states of the world were to truly live in accordance with the principles of international law, then peace and justice would prevail throughout the world. And the principles of international law give us the right to self determination; at the same time not a single UN resolution has legitimised the aggression and integration of East Timor.

In Indonesia, where the Suharto regime is so cruel, so repressive and so disrespectful of its own laws, let alone international law, it is not possible for us to hold a demonstration opposing the regime openly and publicly. If we did so, we would certainly be arrested, tortured and killed, as has happened to so many of our comrades who have gone before us over the last twenty years of our struggle for freedom. To make quite clear what we mean, we remind Your Excellency of the Santa Cruz massacre of 1991, where it was not just our brothers and sisters who were killed, but where a foreigner who witnessed the massacre also fell victim to the ruthlessness of the Indonesian armed forces.

On this day we have chosen to hold our demonstration in Your Excellency's Embassy with the hope that by doing so we will be able to more freely and peacefully prove to the whole world, including to the government and people of Russia, that we have survived, that we still are convinced of our right to self determination, and that we still do not accept the integration of our nation into the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. We continue to reject integration for the following reasons:

Integration was the product of the aggression and the manipulations of the Soeharto regime;

The United Nations has never recognised Indonesia's claim to East Timor;

The Soeharto regime's aggression and invasion of East Timor has been condemned in United Nations resolutions;

The United Nations continues to recognise Portugal as the

administering power in East Timor, and as the party competent to conclude the process of decolonisation there;

Because of all the above facts, the problem of East Timor is an international problem, which must be resolved internationally.

His Excellency, the respected Ambassador, Permit us to explain the problems we have been facing and to explain the practices which have been employed by the Soeharto regime, before we present our demands.

Manipulation by the Regime

When and wherever they are, Soeharto and Ali Alatas never miss an opportunity to claim that integration reflects the aspirations of the people of East Timor; that integration was the product of a process of self determination. Our position is clear. Integration has never been the aspiration of our people. Instead it was the product of a military intervention which unfolded in stages -- in 1974 the Soeharto regime began with Operasi Komodo (Komodo Operation), which was followed in 1975 by Operasi Seroja (Seroja Operation) and which culminated with the open military intervention of December 7 1975. After our country was occupied by the troops of the Soeharto regime, Soeharto ordered the formation of a puppet parliament, which along with the Provisional Government of East Timor which the regime formed, presented a petition to the regime requesting the amalgamation of East Timor into the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. All of these measures of Soeharto have since, bit by bit, been laid bare by the unfolding of history itself. The climax came in the meeting between East Timorese which took place in Austria, where Guilherme Maria Goncalves who at that time had participated in the Provisional Government of East Timor and was a chairperson of the Puppet Parliament, openly stated that he withdrew his consent to the petition. He took this principled stand because at the time he signed the petition he was forced to do so, and because the outcome of integration has so greatly disappointed all parties in East Timor.

This statement by Guilherme Gonclaves has opened up all which had previously been tightly wrapped and concealed by Soeharto's propaganda. We ask: if the people of East Timor wanted integration, why has it been necessary to have so many arrests, so much killing and torture?

A specious argument

As well as arguing that "integration is the will of the people", Soeharto has tried to legitimise his annexation of East Timor by using arguments about "development". For Suharto, "development" is an argument which can be used to legitimise the murder and massacres which have occurred in East Timor. Soeharto has forgotten the most basic and central problems concerning "development". These include:

Who is "development" for? Who carries out "development"?

What intrinsic values does 'development' hold, and what is its use to the people of East Timor, if it is set against the approximately 300 000 people who have lost their lives, and the many more whose whole history, religion and culture has been pushed aside for the last 20 years?

Without the Suharto regime, why couldn't the people of East Timor be able to develop their own country, in accordance with their own desires and hopes.

We are not put off by this talk of "development" and we will not accept it as a theory to legitimise us becoming slaves and becoming alienated from our own society. If Soeharto wants his "development", he should just take it and give it to his own family. For us, freedom is more important, and the value of freedom cannot be measured by the standards of Soeharto's "development".

An international resolution

We have already stated that the problem of East Timor is an international problem. This is because the parties in conflict are Indonesia and the international community, not just Indonesia and Portugal. Because of this, since 1975 the United Nations has attempted to resolve this problem. As a product of all the efforts made by the UN Secretary General, a tripartite meeting between Portugal, the Secretary General and Indonesia took place. The tripartite talks produced a great deal, but only on paper. One of the resolutions adopted by the meeting was for meetings between the foreign ministers and East Timorese people, and for the need to broaden meetings between East Timorese themselves. All of these kinds of meetings have been held. But no prospects for the resolution of the problem of East Timor has emerged. This is caused by:

The Soeharto regime has never been serious and has never indicated any good faith about finding a resolution. This is clearly indicated by its reluctance to implement all UN resolutions on East Timor, and by the fact that it has never implemented any of the points of the resolutions which it has itself agreed to, whether these be in the tripartite meetings or in the meeting between East Timorese in Austria.

The apathy and lack of seriousness with which the countries of the world, including your own country, show towards the East Timor problem.

In our view, the support which certain countries, including your own, have given the Soeharto regime, has made Soeharto even more rigid in his views, and has encouraged him to become even more brutal in his determination to maintain East Timor as Indonesia's 27th province. And his view is confronted by that of our own, which is that we will continue our struggle. And so, there will never be peace, and more victims will continue to fall. And who is responsible for all of this? Our answer is clear: the international community, including your own country, is morally responsible!

Our demands

On the basis of all of the above, now is the time for us to make our demands. We hereby demand:

That the government of Russia support our struggle;

That the government of Russia pressure the Soeharto regime to:

Release all terror in East Timor and release all political prisoners;

withdraw its armed forces from East Timor;

free all political prisoners as proof that the Suharto regime is truly committed to implementing the points agreed upon during the Intra-Timorese dialogue and; agree to involving Xanana Gusmao in all negotiations.

Our position

Whatever the excuses for it, we do not accept integration! In view of the political developments in the Middle East, and the signing of a peace accord in the Balkans, we demand the international community acknowledge that the war in East Timor is twenty years old and it is time that it ended! The demonstration staged on 20 November by a handful of Indonesians posing as East Timorese is proof of the bad faith of the Suharto government in seeking a solution to the East Timor problem.

Our appeal

To the people of Russia to support our struggle! To the western powers to give every support to Portugal in its efforts to seek a solution to the problem of East Timor. To all nations of the world to comply with all resolutions passed on East Timor and to withdraw all forms of support granted to the Suharto regime!

Only in this way is world peace, justice and solidarity amongst the nations of the world realisable.