Protests against East Timor slaughter
In response to reports that as many as 100 people in East Timor were murdered on April 17 and 18 by anti-independence terror gangs backed by the Indonesian regime, solidarity activists held an emergency night vigil outside the Indonesian consulate in Darwin on April 18. Sixty East Timorese exiles and supporters of independence for East Timor gathered at the protest, and a small group maintained the vigil all night. The next morning, the protest expanded again to around 40 people.
Many speakers and other vigil participants were visibly distraught, some having lost family members in the slaughter. With tears flowing, Jose Gusmao demanded that the Indonesian military get out of East Timor. He accused the Australian government of doing too little to save East Timorese lives.
Other speakers included East Timorese exile Maria Bernardino, Rob Wesley-Smith of Australians for a Free East Timor, local Labor MPs John Bailey and Sid Sterling, and Peter Johnston from the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), who linked the Australian government's support for Jakarta to Australian big business's need to maintain profitable relations with Indonesia.
Johnston argued that large protests in Australia are essential to show the government that it will pay a political price for being friendly with Jakarta over the bodies of the Timorese people.
An Indonesian flag was burned, accompanied by Aboriginal traditional chanting. At the office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Maria Bernardino presented three demands: that the Indonesian government stop the killings and disarm the pro-integration militia; that the Australian government officially request the presence of United Nations troops in East Timor; and that the Australian government immediately close all Indonesian embassies and consulates in Australia until the safety of all East Timorese is assured.
In Canberra, 250 people rallied and marched on April 19 to protest against the recent massacres of East Timorese. Protesters included East Timorese who travelled from Sydney.
The rally began at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade building and marched via the federal parliament to the Indonesian embassy. The march was led by protesters carrying a huge paper cross bearing the names of those butchered at Liquica on April 6.
Speakers emphasised that the Indonesian armed forces were behind the massacres and proposed that a UN peace mission be sent to the island, an Australian consulate in Dili be opened and all political prisoners be unconditionally released.
On April 20, 30 people attended a forum jointly organised by Community Aid Abroad and Amnesty International. The meeting was addressed by Lancell Taudevin, an aid worker for an Australian government project in East Timor, and Jenni Kanely, organiser of the grassroots aid group Timor Nai Klamar. Taudevin was forced to flee East Timor after being placed on an anti-independence gang's death list.
Taudevin described the gangs as 100% selected, armed and trained by the Indonesian military. "If the Indonesian military pulled out tomorrow, the militia would be finished, especially since the majority of recruits are from outside East Timor — the border regions of West Timor. I estimate that 96% of the East Timorese are for independence", Taudevin said.
He also noted that while the people of East Timor think "Australia's name is mud", Australia could play an "undeserved leading role" in forcing the New Order regime to cease its violence in East Timor.
In Adelaide, the Committee for an Independent East Timor organised a demonstration on April 17 outside the offices of Garuda airline. Sixty people attended the loud rally and heard speakers including CIET's Andy Alcock and Dr Michael Sullivan from Adelaide University. The action received a lot of local media coverage.
Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) and Resistance organised a speak-out in the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane on April 23. Participants called for the immediate withdrawal of Indonesian troops from East Timor and for a UN peacekeeping force to oversee the disarming of the anti-independence gangs.
The speak-out was opened by Mike Byrne from ASIET, who gave a short history of the East Timorese freedom struggle. Jim McIlroy from the DSP, Ruth Ratcliffe from Resistance, Lynda Hansen from the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean and Terry Symons from the International Socialist Organisation also spoke.
Ratcliffe pointed out, "It was students who led the revolt that brought down President Suharto last year. And it is students and the youth who lead the struggle in East Timor. Now more than ever they deserve our support."
Andy Gianniotios from Resistance ended the speak-out by leading chants of "Freedom for East Timor! Democracy for Indonesia!".