Ramos Horta: support a referendum for East Timor
By Tuntuni Battacharyya
On May 25, 300 people gathered to hear Jose Ramos Horta speak at a meeting organised by the Amnesty club of the University of NSW.
Horta described the invasion of East Timor by Indonesia in 1975 and how his country has been sacrificed in the "pragmatic" relationship between Indonesia and Australia.
He recounted his recent meeting with a British Labour Party MP in which Horta called on the British government to freeze arms sales to Indonesia for the next two to three years while the country is "in transition". His request was refused.
Indonesia's occupation of East Timor is costing that government about $1 million per day, Horta said, adding that this will be decisive in bringing about East Timor's independence.
Horta condemned Australia's refusal to end military ties with Indonesia despite the US doing so, and called on the Australian government to cease recognition of the Indonesian annexation of East Timor. The Australian government's description of East Timorese asylum seekers as Portuguese contradicts its argument in the Hague regarding the Timor Gap Treaty that Portugal has no claim to East Timor, Horta said.
Horta called on the Australian government to support a UN-sponsored referendum on independence in East Timor.