East Timor student sanctuary network launched
By Sarah Peart
As part of the May 17-24 "Free East Timor! Democracy for Indonesia!" week of action, Resistance will launch a student sanctuary network. The network will work together with the broader Sanctuary Network.
The Sanctuary Network is a group of more than 7000 individuals and organisations pledged to provide safe houses for East Timorese refugees threatened with deportation. It was initiated by Catholic nuns and has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin.
Resistance wants to extend this network to campuses around Australia. The student network help provide safe houses for the 1350 East Timorese refugees seeking asylum in Australia. Activists in the student network will pledge to provide places to stay, transport, food or money to the cause.
The government is arguing that East Timorese refugees should be sent to Portugal. (Portugal was East Timor's former colonial rule.) This ignores the fact that the refugees have no families in Portugal and do not want to go there. Australia has argued that East Timor is part of Indonesia, not Portugal, in response to a World Court case brought against Australia's Timor Gap oil treaty with Indonesia in 1996.
The demands of the week of action are: "End Australian support for Suharto"; "Free the political prisoners"; "End military ties"; "Let the refugees stay'; and "Cancel the Timor Gap Treaty". Resistance has received a message of support for the week from East Timorese representative and 1996 Nobel Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta [see page 28].
Actions across Australia include film showings of the documentary There is only one word: Resist! and John Pilger's Death of a Nation, public meetings about the political situation in Indonesia and pickets protesting against the Australian government's support for the Suharto regime. May 24 will be marked as an international day of solidarity. For details of actions and events in your city, call the Resistance National Office on (02) 9690 1230.