February 7, 1996
Issue
Call for East Timor day of solidarity
Last week Jose Ramos Horta, special representative of the National Council for Maubere Resistance (CNRM) called on all people in Australia to add their support to the campaign to demand a withdrawal of the Australian government's de jure recognition of the Indonesian annexation of East Timor. The Fraser Liberal government recognised the annexation in 1978, and this was reaffirmed by the Hawke government on August 18, 1985. Horta, Estanislau da Silva of Fretilin and Joao Carrascalao of the Timorese Democratic Union, together with several representatives from the solidarity movement, have issued a call for a national day of solidarity for East Timor on August 18, 1996. This call is printed below. Free East Timor! No Australian recognition of annexation! While the East Timorese people continue their resistance to the Suharto dictatorship's occupation of their homeland, the Australian government continues to pursue a policy based on the full, formal de jure recognition of Jakarta's annexation of East Timor as its 27th province. The Australian government states that it continues to express its concern for human rights violations in East Timor to the Indonesian government, yet continues to recognise the very state of affairs that gives arise to human rights abuses. The annexation of East Timor by Jakarta was carried out against the will of the East Timorese people, through the use of force, resulting in over 200,000 lives lost. Almost every East Timorese family has lost a family member. It is no wonder then that the East Timorese people continue to resist. The resistance is suppressed by force. Human rights violations by the Indonesian forces will end only when the occupation ends. The Australian government's policy of recognition of the annexation is a major pillar justifying this continuing state of affairs. The Australian government is the only government in the world to go so far as to grant full, legal recognition of the annexation, in defiance of the United Nations resolutions and International Court of Justice decisions which recognise East Timor as a non-self-governing territory. In order to send a clear message to the Australian government that a growing number of people in Australia, East Timorese and Australians in particular, oppose this policy, the organisations whose representatives have signed this call, propose a national day of solidarity with East Timor on the anniversary of the announcement by then Prime Minister Hawke on August 18, 1985 reaffirming that the new Labor government gave de jure recognition of Indonesia's annexation. FREE EAST TIMOR! NO AUSTRALIAN RECOGNITION OF ANNEXATION! should be on the banners that we all march under on August 18. In order to organise the most effective campaign leading up to and including mobilisations on 18 August, we propose that the national day of solidarity be organised in the following manner:- that the national day of solidarity be organised under no single group or organisational banner and that all groups and individuals who agree with the idea of the mobilisation and the basic banners be encouraged to fully participate in building the day and to be the public sponsors of the day of solidarity;
- that local branches, representatives and partner groups of the organisations signing below move quickly to jointly convene open organising committees in their respective cities and towns to prepare for the mobilisations in their cities and towns with responsibility for organising activities on the day and general publicity for the event;
- that public sponsors from all walks of life be sought to help add authority and profile to the national day of solidarity;
- that all the convening groups and all other participating groups consistently promote the national day of solidarity and its basic slogans through their own programs of activities, carried out in their own methods and styles and amongst their own constituencies.