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Security sweep targets East Timorese civilians

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Jose Ramos-Horta - June 4, 1997

The East Timorese armed resistance is very much alive, despite the propaganda claims by the Indonesian armed forces in the Suharto regime that the independence fighters have all been decimated. Over the weekend, East Timor independence fighters killed at least 18 Indonesian police in a highway ambush.

"The Indonesian government says in its propaganda that most East Timorese today are happy with their integration with Indonesia. But if they are happy with integration, why do there have to be more than 20,000 Indonesian troops in East Timor?", asked Jose Ramos-Horta, the East Timor resistance leader and 1996 Nobel Peace laureate.

A major security sweep is currently being carried out in Dili, Bacau and Los Palos following the weekend ambush.

Ramos-Horta said that 2,000 East Timorese could be rounded up all over the territory in the security sweep.

"I have received information from inside East Timor that over 200 people have been arrested during the past two days in Baucau. And many of them are students," said the Nobel Peace laureate.

Ramos-Horta appealed to the international community to intervene on behalf of the East Timorese.

"The international community must not turn a blind eye to these atrocities committed against the Timorese people. With the Suharto regime's reputation for repression unabated, the international community must act fast before more innocent lives are lost."

In the post-election Indonesia, Ramos-Horta said, there are additional headaches for President Suharto.

"The main promoters of the election boycott in Indonesia have also called for a United Nations-supervised referendum in East Timor," he pointed out.

There are important political developments that are making it increasingly difficult for Indonesia to maintain its illegal occupation of East Timor.

Most important, said Ramos-Horta, is the changing situation within Indonesia itself. "Pro-democracy groups are speaking out more and more on the issue of East Timor, linking the oppression there to that which exists under the Suharto regime in Indonesia."

The brutal, over two-decade-long , occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, said the Nobel Peace laureate, is a clear indication of the inflexibility and violence of the Suharto regime. Ramos-Horta said Timorese would cease their armed activities if there was a sign of compromise by Indonesia. But Indonesia, he said, had to come up with concrete measures: reduce its more than 20,000 troops in East Timor, release prisoners and stop torturing those in its prisons.

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