| Subject: GLW: Dili Protesters attacked at
cemetery
EAST TIMOR: Protesters attacked at cemetery
Max Lane
Around 200 East Timorese protesters were attacked on April 9 by police,
including special branch paramilitary forces. The protesters had gathered
at the Santa Cruz cemetery, the site of a 1991 protest where participants
were massacred by Indonesian military, to commemorate the massacre and
protest the East Timorese government’s invitation to Indonesian
President Yudhoyono to visit the country. Yudhoyono was scheduled to visit
Santa Cruz cemetery.
The police stated that the demonstrators had no permit for a protest,
although a law requiring such permits had not yet been passed by
parliament. After the police seized banners and forced the protest to
disperse, the activists relocated to the offices of the Socialist Party of
Timor (PST). The police and members of the rapid response unit then
surrounded the PST offices. PST secretary-general of the PST, Avelino de
Silva, told Green Left Weekly during the stand-off that he had tried three
times to enter his office but had been stopped.
Other sources have told GLW that East Timorese government
representatives had visited the PST offices earlier in the morning and
ordered that there be no protests against Yudhoyono’s visit.
From inside the office, students and youth from activist non-government
organisations and from the Socialist Youth Organisation draped a banner
that read: “No impunity — Justice for the victims”.
Speaking from inside, Tomas Freitas, from the Lao Hamatuk organisation,
told GLW reporters in Darwin that the demonstration was protesting against
the East Timorese government’s policy of “reconciliation” with the
Indonesian government, because it involved dropping the demand for an
international tribunal to judge human rights violators during the period
of the Indonesian occupation.
“Democracy is dead in East Timor”, Avelino told GLW. “In Jakarta
you can demonstrate against SBY [Yudhoyono], but they have made him a god
here. They have allowed no banners anywhere protesting SBY’s visit, but
have forced people to put up welcome banners everywhere. When people
gathered outside our office just a while ago, they too were dispersed by
force.”
The blockade around the PST office was maintained until Yudhoyono left
East Timor. On April 9, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website
carried an Agence France Press report that claimed: “A planned protest
during Dr Yudhoyono's visit to the cemetery with East Timor Foreign
Minister Jose Ramos-Horta did not materialise. Instead, he has been
greeted warmly by about 100 East Timorese, some of whom shook his hand.”
From Green Left Weekly, April 13, 2005. Visit the Green Left Weekly
home page.
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