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Ex-militia leader says Timorese could end up like Aborigines
Timorese pro-Indonesian group on possibility of Fretilin win in August polls

Timor: Pro-integration militias reject polls as plot to form puppet state

Detikcom web site, Jakarta, in Indonesian 31 Aug 01

Excerpt from report by Bagus Kurniawan carried by Indonesian Detikcom web site on 31 August

Detikcom: East Timorese pro-integrationists from the Union of Timorese Warriors (UNTAS) have rejected everything being forced upon them by UNTAET United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, especially the elections in East Timor. They feel that the elections are merely an attempt to form a foreign colonial puppet state.

"The elections in East Timor are not legal and its results need to be rejected," said UNTAS leader Domingos MD Soares when reading out the group's statement at the East Timorese students' boarding house on Kaliurang Street in Yogyakarta on Thursday (30 August).

"At the moment the pro-independence side can feel very happy with the elections. They don't yet know they have entered an international trap and will only become a foreign puppet state in the future," added Domingos...

They believe UNTAET violated the UN resolution when they changed the option of rejecting wide-ranging autonomy to accepting independence. It was all done in a systematic way, said Domingos...

Meanwhile, former Timorese Integration Forces (PPI) Commander Joao da Silva Tavares has stressed that pro-integrationists will continue their struggle to free East Timor from its foreign grip.

Ex-militia leader says Timorese could end up like Aborigines

JAKARTA, Aug 30 (AFP) - Feared ex-militia leader Eurico Guterres declared Thursday a "day of mourning for East Timor" and said its people could end up second-class citizens like Australia's Aborigines.

The United Nations was imposing Thursday's election for a constituent assembly on a people who were not yet ready to stand alone, he told AFP.

"This election is actually an election forced by the United Nations," Guterres said.

"What might result is some sort of system where East Timorese will become like the Aborigines in Australia," he added, saying East Timorese would become second-class citizens in their own country.

He declined to elaborate.

Guterres, who although born in East Timor is now an Indonesian citizen, claimed to have no interest in the poll -- seen as the next step towards nationhood.

"As an Indonesian citizen, I have nothing to do with the poll and have no interest whatsoever in it," Guterres said by telephone from Semarang in Central Java.

But he said that as an East Timorese native, he had his own views. Together with other East Timorese exiles in Semarang, he marked what he called "a day of mourning for East Timor".

In a UN-organised ballot exactly two years ago, almost 80 percent of East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia, which had annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1976.

Guterres and his Indonesian supporters in East Timor have accused the UN of electoral fraud in 1999.

Guterres headed the pro-Jakarta Aitarak (Thorn) militia which terrorised Dili and surrounding areas long before the 1999 vote took place.

His group also joined in the week of terror, killing and destruction that greeted the pro-independence result.

A senior Indonesian minister said Jakarta honored Thursday's democratic process in East Timor and supported the fledgling country.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, coordinating minister for politics and security, said comments by President Megawati Sukarnoputri had made it clear "that Indonesia honors the process in East Timor and has so far contributed to it".

He told reporters: "(East Timor) can do anything as long as it is democratic and fair and does not run counter to Indonesia's interests."

Timorese pro-Indonesian group on possibility of Fretilin win in August polls

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Aug 29, 2001

Text of report by Indonesian news agency Antara web site

Kupang: [Pro-integration] UNTAS (Union of Timorese Warriors) Secretary-General Filomeno de Jesus Hornay said there was nothing wrong if a majority of East Timorese chose Fretilin [Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor] as their preferred party in the 30 August elections.

"Even if the party follows communism it is unlikely they will attempt to rid themselves of their political foes because global democracy at the moment is very open and transparent", said Filomeno in Kupang on Tuesday (28 August). He was asked to comment on fears from a number of East Timorese refugee groups in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) that Fretilin will gain the majority in the elections and lead the country.

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