Dili – The pro-Indonesian newspaper "Suara Timor Timur" (Voice of East Timor) in Dili on Wednesday published an interview with the second commander of the territory's guerrilla movement. Taur Matan Ruak. The report said the interview had been held last Sunday.
The newspaper report, complete with a photo of the guerrilla leader, quotes Matan Ruak saying that this guerrilla movement was ready to participate in a process of dialogue about the issue of East Timor as long as the process would take place within the framework of the United Nations.
An East Timorese resident in Dili, capital of the occupied territory of East Timor, translated the newspaper report from the Indonesian language (Bahasa) into Portuguese during a telephone conversations with the LUSA bureau of Macau on Wednesady.
Matan Ruak was quoted as saying that his movement would participate "without the noise of arms" if the dialogue on East Timor would be conducted by the United Nations, adding his movement would continues to hold its arms "in the hands" if the initiative of a dialogue would be presented by the Indonesian side only.
In the interview, Matan Ruak was also quoted as saying that the imprisoned guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao continued to be the armed resistance movement's "supreme chief", stressing that he himself was the "vice-commander of the Armed National Liberation Forces of East Timor (FALINTIL) and the chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of Timor Loro Sae". Matan Ruak described Gusmao as the "supreme chief" of the National Timorese Resistance Council and commander of FALINTIL.
In the interview, Matan Ruak reportedly also confirmed that former guerrilla leader Konis Santana and David Alex "are dead", in spite of of persistent rumors to the countrary among many East Timorese. The report also quoted Matan Ruak as saying he believed the people of East Timor wished the FALINTIL should "continue to fight" until East Timor was able to gain the right to freely choose its destiny.
Matan Ruak reportedly also he hopeful that Indonesia was finally able to "think in a positive way" about a solution to the problem of East Timor through a process of dialogue. Matan Ruak also said quoted as saying that his freedom fighters earlier this year contacted Indonesian soldeirs in East Timor by radio, stressing he knew that the Indonesian soldiers based in East Timor "do not want war anymore". However, Matan Ruak said the Indonesian soldiers had ceased communicating with FALINTIL by radio in July.
The guerrilla movement's second commander also said that the following Indonesia's political changes earlier this year even someone like him had "now the right and freedom to walk in the streets of Dili". The "Suara Timor Timur" newspaper was founded in March 1986. It managed by Salvador Ximenes, a GOLKAR deputy in the Indonesian parliament in Jakarta, representing East Timor.