Lisbon – The Indonesian police has demanded 33 East Timorese youths arrested last week after breaking into the Austrian embassy in Jakarta to sign a declaration accepting the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia if they want to be released, sources told Lusa.

Sources at the East Timorese Student Resistance movement (RENETIL) in Jakarta told Lusa by phone on Sunday that the Indonesian request had been denounced by one of the arrested youth after calling RENETIL.

The same sources added that, until the contact with Lusa, the youths had not been physically tortured and that they refused to sign the document.

The 33 East Timorese students entered the Austrian embassy in Jakarta last Thursday to stage a demonstration in support of East Timor's self-determination right and seek a meeting with United Nations (UN) envoy, Jamsheed Marker, during his 10-day visit to Indonesia and East Timor.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it one year later but the United Nations still regards Portugal as the territory's administering power.

Lisbon has demanded that East Timor be given the right to self-determination. Lusa/Fim