By Max Lane
MANILA, June 3 — For the last week a battle has raged here in the Philippines capital for the right to hold the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor, despite systematic attempts by the Ramos government to prevent it happening and to keep out foreign participants.
These attempts have blown up in the faces of both the Indonesian and Filipino governments, giving the 500-strong conference massive publicity and dramatically highlighting the cause of the people of occupied East Timor.
In the last month the Indonesian government has made a sustained effort to force the Philippines government to stop the conference, including ordering Indonesian businessmen not to attend a trade fair in the Philippines. Initially it seemed that Ramos would not cooperate with Indonesian President Suharto in stopping the conference, but would allow the conference to go ahead, though without allowing in international guests.
However, on May 27 a previously unknown organisation, the Philippines Indonesia Society Inc, successfully filed an injunction against the conference at the Quezon City District Court. The conference organisers immediately announced they would defy the injunction and continue with the conference, but the University of the Philippines announced that the injunction would force it to prevent its facilities being used for the conference. However, the dean of the Faculty of Law immediately appealed against the injunction in the High Court.
As the battle over the conference raged, the Philippines media, already covering the issue daily, launched a wave of criticism of the Ramos government for its direct and indirect attempts to sabotage the conference.
On May 30, 10 of the foreign participants held a press conference expressing their concerns over the genocide of the people of East Timor, and their determination to attend the conference.
In the wake of the press conference, the government announced that foreign guests would be arrested and deported.
The next day, while the Supreme Court was sitting to hear the appeal against the banning of the conference, hundreds of people gathered at the University of the Philippines campus, prepared to march to the Faculty of Law, where the conference was due to be held. As rumours spread of arrest orders being issued for the foreign guests, a cordon of security guards, mainly workers and political activists from Mindanao, was formed around the demonstration.
At the head of the demonstration, in addition to prominent civil liberties lawyers, were Ronald Llamas of the socialist organisation BISIG and Tony Cabardo of the SANLAKAS front of mass organisations — both well-known political activists who attended the International Green Left conference in Sydney in April. Also prominent were conference organisers R.C. Constantino and Gus Miclat, who had led the defiance from the start.
As the demonstration was about to march, the news came through that the Supreme Court had overturned the injunction but upheld the government's right to ban foreign visitors. By this stage many visitors from Europe, North America and Asia had already arrived, and promptly participated in the formal opening of the conference in the Law Faculty.
On June 1, with even more foreign guests arriving, this time from Thailand, South Korea and Japan, the Ramos government announced that it had issued deportation orders against 10 foreigners, including three Australians and one Australian resident — Max Lane, Robert Wesley-Smith, Peter Wesley-Smith and Saskia Koewenberg. Others ordered out included people from the US, Portugal, Argentina, Holland and India.
Further legal moves against the 10 have failed to get them deported, and in the end the revocation of the visas of the 10 named visitors was revoked — a humiliation for the government and yet more publicity for the conference.
While many foreign visitors are attending the conference, others have been kept out. These include leading East Timorese figures Jose Ramos Horta of the East Timor front CNRM (National Council of Maubere Resistance) and Mari Alkatiri of Fretilin. Harold Moucho from Sydney Fretilin was also banned from entering Manila, as were other East Timorese from Australia, Nobel Peace prize winner Mary Maguire from Ireland and a group of Sri Lankan activists.
The attempt of the Ramos regime to cooperate with the Suharto regime in harassing the conference has generated enormous criticism of the government. Even Ramos' sister, a senator, has called for the resignation of the foreign minister and chief national security adviser.
Highlights of the conference so far, apart from the highly dramatic opening, were the appearance on the podium of Ines Almeida from the Australian-based East Timor Relief Association, eloquently espousing the cause of the people of East Timor and calling for the release of Fretilin leader Xanana Gusmao from prison in Indonesia.
Other speakers included a spokesperson from the Indonesian human rights centre, the Pijar Foundation, who assured the conference of the support of the Indonesian pro-democracy movement for the struggle for self-determination for East Timor.