Jakarta – Some 1,000 East Timor students rallied Saturday against Indonesian rule in provincial capital Dili and called for a referendum on self-determination, following a day of similar protests here.

About 1,000 students from various universities in the East Timor capital Dili defied an order from the local governor and held an anti-Indonesian rally at the Timor Timur university, a source there told AFP.

The students joined by civilians held a free-speech forum to air their grievances against Indonesia's rule and to demand self-determination of the people of the territory, the source said.

The protest followed a similar action in Jakarta at the foreign ministry on Friday by some 1,300 students who were forcibly rounded up by the Indonesian military and had their identities recorded. The group was preparing to leave the Indonesian capital on Saturday.

East Timor Governor Jose Osorio Abilio Soares on Thursday had ordered the students not to demonstrate. "The governor's warning has only further reinforced the students' faith in their mission to fight for a free state," the East Timor source told AFP. "The students in their free speech forum demanded for (East) Timor to have the freedom to determine its own state," he said.

The students also demanded an immediate referendum as well as the liberation of rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, who is serving a 20- year jail term here for plotting against the state and illegal possession of weapons.

The university, a known hotbed of pro-independence student activists, has held daily free-speech forum since Wednesday.