Home
Background
ETAN/US
News
Urgent Actions
What To Do
ETAN Store
Estafeta
Images
Site Index

Dear friends This position of the Timorese students was put forward to the EU ambassadors on a fact-finding mission to East Timor.

Position, Demands, and Appeal of East Timorese University Graduates (Sarjana) on the solution of the problem of East Timor June 25, 1998

Position:

1. We believe that an automatic exercise of self-determination never happened in East Timor. That explains why the Indonesian government under Suharto's regime over the last 23 years has never been able to persuade the international community that the so-called integration of East Timor into the Republic of Indonesia is the free will of the majority of the people of East Timor.

2. We view that the problem of East Timor has been manipulated by Suharto's regime (Declaration of Balibo in 1975 and the Act No 7 of 1976), and within that period there has been huge number of victims who lost their lives, both from the Timorese side and from the Indonesian Armed Forces (Abri); at the same time the Indonesian Government has lost its credibility and good reputation in the eyes of the international community, which consequently brought forth various sanctions and boycotts against Indonesia.

Demands:

We demand the European Union push forward the effort of the Portuguese and the Indonesian governments, as well as the United Nations to find a fair solution to the East Timor conflict within the following network:

1. Alternatives for the future status of the territory of East Timor are:

a. integration with the Republic of Indonesia b. independence

2. The mechanism for the realisation of points 1.a and 1b. is through a Referendum under the auspices of the United Nations.

3. The preconditions which must be created before the implementation of the Referendum are:

a. Release without any precondition all political prisoners both inside and outside East Timor, including the President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao. b. Stop any form of violence in East Timor. c. The presence of an International Commission and its components with the task to observe without restriction:

c.1 a ceasefire c.2 the withdrawal of the Indonesian Military (Abri) c.3 any form of human rights violation, and c.4 assist the transitional government to work more smoothly towards the Referendum.

d. Ceasefire between Abri and Falintil e. Withdrawal of Abri from East Timor f. Formation of a Transitional Government.

Special Demand

Through this opportunity we also call on the European Union to postpone all economic aids through IMF to Indonesia until they have goodwill to settle the East Timor problem in accordance to the aspirations of the East Timorese people.

That's the position and demands of the post-graduate degree students from East Timor.

June 27, 1998.

'EAST TIMOR ON THE NET' For the latest updates, news and views on East Timor and Indonesia Visit http://www.easttimor.com maintained by the East Timor International Support Center Hon Chairman: Jose Ramos-Horta Nobel Peace Laureate 1996