Actions for East Timor
Fifty people participated in a speak-out for East Timor in Brisbane on November 18, reports Nick Everett. The event was held to support the demands of 29 East Timorese students inside the US embassy in Jakarta and to highlight the repression of demonstrations in East Timor.
Speakers from the East Timorese community, Aksi — Indonesia Solidarity Action, Resistance and the International Socialists, as well as a number of individuals, spoke of the failure of the APEC conference to bring any closer an end to the occupation of East Timor.
A candlelight vigil will be held in Brisbane to mark the anniversary of the 1975 invasion on December 7.
In Melbourne, to chants of "Freedom for East Timor",
"Suharto is a butcher", "Gareth Evans is a pig", around 200 lively protesters wound their way from the GPO to Garuda airlines and back.
The November 18 demonstration was organised by Fretilin, UDT, AETA and Resistance in solidarity with Timorese protesters in Dili and Jakarta.
A vigil is being maintained at the US Consulate, 533 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.
Around 200 people gathered at Town Hall Sydney on November 19 in an emergency rally called in solidarity with the East Timorese protesting in Dili and the students occupying the US embassy in Jakarta.
Speakers from Fretilin, UDT, Aksi, Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party addressed the need to continue the solidarity campaign and condemned the role of the ALP in backing the Indonesian occupation. The crowd then marched to the ALP headquarters chanting "ALP, BHP, Out of the Timor Sea".