ISSN #1088-8136

Vol. 7, No. 1
Winter 2001

ETAN Needs Your Support!

A new president and Congress are taking office, and we have to work extra hard to educate and pressure the new administration to support a secure and prosperous East Timor. With your help, ETAN successfully turned U.S. policy from supporting Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor into one backing freedom and independence. Your support is needed now to secure and build on that victory. Please give generously to support ETAN's important work to bring the refugees home, achieve justice, and build a democratic and secure East Timor. Your donation will help us advocate for the East Timorese people during this new phase of the country's transition to the first new nation of this millennium.

Please send a check to ETAN today!

Donations of any size for ETAN's political and advocacy work should be made out to ETAN and are not tax-deductible. Tax-deductible checks for over $50 can be made out to "AJ Muste Memorial Institute" and will be used to support our educational work. Click here for a mail donation form.

In Memoriam: Diane Mechling

wesJosč Ramos-Horta, Nancy Haque, and Diane Mechling

On October 13, Diane Mechling, one of Portland's most dedicated activists, died in a car accident in Northern California. Diane worked with the Portland chapter of the East Timor Action Network since its founding in the Spring of 1993. Diane felt the suffering of others with a profound empathy and compassion, and she transformed those emotions into action. She brought dedication and a loving spirit to many struggles for justice and human rights, and to the fight to protect the forest and wilderness areas of the Pacific Northwest. We cannot express how much we will miss her warmth, her smile, and her passionate, caring presence. Her family has asked that donations be made in her name to the East Timor Action Network.

ETAN Bids Fond Adieu To Departing Staff

In as non-militarist a fashion as we can muster, ETAN salutes our departing staffers Kristin Sundell and Lynn Fredriksson. Both have served ETAN well throughout our crucial final years of campaigning for East Timor's self-determination and have given their all in a fashion that has inspired many in our movement to do more for the East Timorese people. Lynn took the lead in forging strategies and establishing working relationships in Washington that were crucial in swaying congressional, and some administration, support to the side of the East Timorese. Kristin worked throughout the U.S. to strengthen grassroots pressure on Washington, and both helped on countless other East Timor and Indonesia solidarity projects. While both will continue to work in solidarity with the East Timorese, Kristin is moving on to graduate school and Lynn will serve as the interim director of the Indonesia Human Rights Network.

ETAN Welcomes New Field Organizer Diane Farsetta

Diane Farsetta joined the East Timor Action Network in 1993, after learning about U.S. complicity in the occupation of East Timor from the writings of Noam Chomsky. She has been the coordinator of ETAN's Madison chapter since 1997. Diane has attended numerous ETAN lobby days and conferences, and has volunteered with ETAN's personnel and executive committees. She went to East Timor last year with the IFET observer project, and had the honor of meeting Father Hilario before the Indonesian military murdered him and 200 others at Suai cathedral. Diane and others in Madison are currently working on a sister city project with Ainaro, East Timor.

A well-rounded radical, Diane volunteers with a feminist news collective at Madison's community radio station, lives in co-operative housing, has worked at the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua, and has taken part in School of the Americas protests. She deplores injustice, but enjoys reading and jogging.

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