By Jon Land
The first Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET), held in Manila, brought together representatives of human rights and solidarity organisations from across the world to speak out against the continued illegal occupation of East Timor by Indonesia. The repeated attempts by the Indonesian and Philippines governments to stop APCET from going ahead was defeated by the mobilisation of Filipino progressive and left forces, which were central to the organisation and building of the conference.
In the lead-up to APCET, the Indonesian government threatened to withdraw 19 billion pesos worth of investment, detained Filipino fishing vessels and issued a range of other diplomatic threats. In response, President Ramos of the Philippines acquiesced and banned the entry of all foreigners attending the conference. He also issued deportation orders for 10 of the 30 or so international participants who had succeeded in entering the Philippines. The APCET organising committee had a court order issued against it by a shonky private group, Philippines-Indonesia Society Inc, made up of business people and former generals with close ties to Ramos. This injunction was overturned by the Supreme Court on the day the conference started.
The Filipino press lashed out at Ramos over the handling of the affair, which was also covered extensively by international news services. According to Joel Saracho, media spokesperson for the conference, this was a "publicity coup, compliments of Indonesia".
APCET was held at the University of the Philippines from May 31 to June 4. Participants were able to discuss and plan a new international campaign for the independence of East Timor. While it will involve the vast network of solidarity groups worldwide, the campaign will be centred in the Philippines, building on the strong and broad support for East Timor among the Filipino left and progressive movements.
Speakers came from diverse backgrounds: students, academics, clergy, members of parliament and representatives of worker and human rights organisations. Renato Constantino Jr, chairperson of the APCET organising committee, spoke of the similarity between East Timor and the Philippines in the struggle against colonialism and later against imperialism.
"The Philippines ... due to its colonial history, looks at itself and the world through American blue eyes. It is in this context that it is important for Filipinos to locate East Timor, its people and their struggle.
"The struggle in East Timor calls on freedom-loving peoples to support their just cause. But in addition to moral and humanitarian imperatives, valid enough reasons to elicit solidarity, we see the East Timorese people's struggle as a source of strength in our own struggle for freedom, justice and democracy. We see similarities and lessons that may help contribute to our efforts to reawaken our slumbering mass memory and add flame to our struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism. In turn, we hope that our own efforts towards liberation will similarly inspire the Maubere people to resolutely keep their struggle for self determination.
"In the concrete, the Philippine broad progressive movement is thus prepared to host an international conference on East Timor not only to bring further attention to the issue but to bring East Timor to Asia, particularly South-East Asia, which has remained largely silent.
"While it is fully our intention to bring into the conference the active participation of mainstream political parties and prominent Filipino personalities, the core of our conference organising group (which will subsequently be converted into a Filipino solidarity network for East Timor) is initially composed of all the major progressive political tendencies, parliamentarians of the street.
"I cannot underscore enough the fact that these groups have different visions and ideological perspectives. But I must equally stress the fact that all are prepared to subsume these differences to points of unity. All are prepared to seek out areas of common concern to work out common goals. And in spite of their contradictions, all are actively seeking to reach consensus on various issues and at different levels and act together. The East Timor question is one such basis of unity."
Excerpts from a speech by Nino Konis Santana, head of the Executive Council/Armed Front within East Timor, were read out to the conference, outlining the importance of a just and negotiated solution to achieve peace and independence.
"For the past 18 years, the situation in East Timor has been without a solution. In view of the inability of the United Nations to implement its own resolutions since 1982, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 37/30, the secretary general was mandated to mediate the conflict. However, the people of East Timor remain on the sidelines of this diplomatic process.
"History has its own development dynamic. The dynamic of the histories of conflict in the world point to dialogue as the means most effective to resolve the differences among countries. Friends and enemies resort to dialogue to resolve their conflicts.
"The people of East Timor are aware that any attitude of inflexibility by the extremists will not favour a solution to the problem of East Timor. For this reason our method of struggle is based on moderation and flexibility, based on complete openness for dialogue. However, the Indonesian regime remains defiant, inflexible and arrogant. We remain ready to enter into a process of dialogue without preconditions with the view to exploring every possible solution beneficial to all parties involved.
"To overcome the deadlock, the National Council of Maubere Resistance [CNRM] presented a comprehensive peace plan which offers Indonesia an honourable way out of the quagmire. This peace plan was articulated by the CNRM special representative, Jose Ramos Horta, in an address to the European Union in Brussels in April 1992, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in May 1992 and to the United Nations."
Jose Ramos Horta was one of those on a black list of 40 people which the Philippines government barred from entering the country. Others included: Jose Luis Guterres, the chairperson of Fretilin External Delegation; Joao Carrascalao, chairperson of UDT (Timorese Democratic Union); Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the president of France; and Carmel Budiardjo from the British human rights group Tapol.
Horta questioned Indonesia's reaction to the conference. "Why is the Indonesian government so afraid of dealing with the truth, to the point of responding with the present embarrassing hysteria?
"All along we had welcomed the participation of high level Indonesian officials, including the Indonesian foreign minister, at the conference, so as to provide them a platform to present their views. Are they so lacking in arguments, that they can only respond by brutally blackmailing the Philippines, trampling on its sovereignty and dignity? The list of foreign conferees banned by President Ramos further proves Indonesian interference in the conduct of Filipino affairs. Why are no East Timorese collaborators of Jakarta named among those banned?"
A statement read out to the conference from Guterres was also strongly critical of the role played by the Indonesian and Philippines governments. "We condemn the Indonesian government's expansionist and dictatorial policy of using generals and politicians of other ASEAN countries as their army corporals and puppets. We strongly denounce the Indonesian economic blackmail against the Philippines, but Fretilin deplores the failure of General Ramos' government to resist the Indonesian generals' dictates.
"As a south-east Asian and Pacific country, we would like to apply in the future for membership of ASEAN. But we believe that ASEAN has to be an organisation of sovereign states, and not an Indonesian bantustan. We would like economic growth for all its people, but not at the cost of slavery and underpaid workers and peasants."
Ines Almeida, an East Timorese from Australia and representative for the East Timor Relief Association in Sydney, was one of the international participants who managed to avoid deportation and speak at APCET. She noted the impact the Dili massacre had internationally in getting Indonesia to take part in negotiations.
"One of the events which highlighted the question of East Timor in the international arena was undoubtedly the infamous massacre of Santa Cruz, November 12, 1991. The blood shed by those courageous Timorese has maintained the focus on East Timor as it never happened before.
"The tragedy continues, however. As I am speaking to you here, I believe Timorese are being arrested somewhere in East Timor. On May 29, newspapers in Portugal published a report received from the clandestine front in East Timor claiming that 10 Timorese were captured and tortured by the Indonesian troops. Their names were given and the group accused as having been responsible in the preparation of protests leading to the May 6 talks in Geneva. According to the document, these were not the only arrests that took place. So we can expect more bad news soon.
"Dr George Aditjondro, an Indonesian scholar and university lecturer in research methodology, in his interview pertaining to this conference, published by the Indonesian magazine, the Editor, said the following:
"'The foreign ministry [of Indonesia] has recently signed a communique in Geneva [May 6 talks] saying that we [Indonesia] are ready to have dialogue with anti-integration groups. On the other hand, there have been arrests in Java of anti-integration people. The commander of Korem [Indonesian military command] in Dili has said that if the clandestine emerge, 'I will crush them'. Crushing people is quite different from dialogue, isn't it? This week people were arrested in Malang.'
"These are words of an Indonesian patriot who is clearly conscious of the need to look seriously into the question of a solution for East Timor.
"This is perhaps the point I will focus on today. There is a peace plan devised by CNRM. It is a comprehensive plan which envisaged several stages through which a gradual withdrawal of the Indonesian armed forces and civil servants will proceed, and ultimately, a referendum will be held in order to safeguard the universal rights of the people of East Timor, especially the fundamental rights to self-determination and independence. The entire process is to be held under the auspices of the United Nations and, when necessary, with the conditions and infrastructures created by the UN itself.
"The rationale upon which this peace plan was conceived is the fact that militarily we, the Timorese, can not realistically force the Indonesian military to withdraw from East Timor. However, our national leader, Xanana Gusmao himself, has stated in the faked trial he was subjected to in Dili last year, that Indonesia must now be prepared to accept that it had lost the political battle in East Timor.
"Since then, Xanana's statement was recently supported by the Indonesian armed forces commander in East Timor, Colonel Johnny Lumintang. He said in a recent interview with the Jakarta-based foreign journalists, 'It is true that we have not got the sympathy of the people. The problem is not settled.' His senior, the regional commander, Major General Adang Ruchiatana, described East Timor 'as a pebble in Indonesia's shoe', and added that his armed forces needed more time to 'change the mentality of the people' from a climate of fear.
"It is clear that the Indonesian military fear that a referendum will not swing the pendulum to their side. It is a matter of fact that after almost 20 years resisting this barbaric military occupation, few (if any) Timorese will vote for integration if it is done through a genuine act of self-determination, whereby the people will freely be given the chance to choose their future."
Pro-democracy and human rights organisations within Indonesia are increasing their activity on the issue of East Timor. The recently formed Peoples Democratic Union, a national organisation of student, worker and peasant groups, stated in its founding declaration strong support for the independence and democratic rights of the East Timorese nation.
Another human rights organisation, Yayasan Pijar, which has also campaigned on East Timor, was able to send (at great risk) representatives to APCET and received a warm reception on addressing the conference.
"Our primary reason for coming to this conference is to extend our solidarity to the peoples of the world in winning justice and peace. Our first commitment is to justice: that the people of East Timor should have the opportunity to determine their own fate. Only then can there be peace between Indonesia and East Timor and the violence which has cost so many lives can be ended.
"We are here in this conference because we cannot refuse to see that East Timor is part of the democratic and human rights struggle in Indonesia. Violence, repression and coercion in East Timor must be stopped in the name of our humanity, in the name of the victims who have fallen on both sides. The cries of children who have lost their fathers and mothers, their relatives, is the same everywhere, in East Timor and in Indonesia."
This sentiment of solidarity and determination was very much the central theme for the conference, according to Max Lane from the Australian group AKSI — Indonesia Solidarity Action.
"There is one thing certain of the efforts of those who organised and attended this conference and that of the struggle of the East Timorese people — East Timor will be free.
"They are united in their commitment to see that the issue of East Timor remains on the international agenda, despite all attempts by Indonesia, backed by influential Western nations such as Australia, Great Britain and the US, to force otherwise."