1 May 1997 Edition
Nobel peace winner visits Ireland
By Dara Mac Neil
Gerry Adams met East Timorese Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr José Ramos Horta during his visit to Belfast last Thursday 24 April.
Speaking after the meeting Adams said he congratulated Dr Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo for winning the 1996 Nobel prize for their efforts to seek an Indonesian withdrawal from the small Pacific island which they have occupied since 1975.
Adams said, ``East Timor has suffered enormously and the courage of its people in standing up against Indonesian military occupation and the denial of national self-determination is an inspiration to us here in Ireland''.
The Sinn Fein leader criticised the attitude of the British government who supply Hawk jets to the Indonesian military which have been used against the East Timorese population.
``The British government attitude was summed up by former Defence Minister Alan Clarke who was responsible for the sale of the Hawks to Indonesia when he wrote in his diary `my responsibility is to my own people. I don't really fill my mind with what one set of foreigners are doing to another'''.
Adams said, ``there is growing international support for the struggle of the East Timorese people and mounting criticism of the sale of weapons to Indonesia by the British government. Sinn Fein will continue to support the demand for self-determination by the people of East Timor''.
Dr Horta was visiting Ireland at the invitation of Trocaire and the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign (ETISC). Dr Horta was awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize along with Bishop Belo, the Catholic Bishop of Dili, the capital of East Timor.
Both Horta and Belo have been outspoken opponents of the 22 year-old Indonesian occupation of their country. East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, with the active support and complicity of the West. In that time, the Indonesians have slaughtered over 200,000 people - almost a third of East Timor's population. This act of genocide has been accurately characterised by Noam Chomsky as ``perhaps the greatest death toll relative to the population, since the Holocaust.''
Yet, as Indonesia was - and is - actively supported by the major western powers its activities have never featured largely in the western media.
Indeed, compared to favoured western causes - such as Afghanistan in the 1980s - Indonesia's genocidal activities in East Timor have received almost no attention whatsoever. Over the years, the country's murderous armed forces have been supplied by the US, Britain, Germany and France, to name but a few.
In addition, neighbouring Australia is also guilty of complicity having given Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor de facto recognition in return for a share of the vast oil reserves that lie off the East Timorese coast.
The UN meanwhile has passed successive resolutions condemning the occupation but - unlike the case of Kuwait - these have yet to translate into action. However, it is hoped the recent appointment of Kofi Anan as the organisation's new General Secretary will mark the end of over twenty years of scandalous UN inactivity.
Dr Horta, who left East Timor just days before the 1975 invasion, has acted over the years as East Timor's Foreign Minister in Exile. He himself has lost three brothers and one sister to the invasion.
While in Ireland Dr Horta hosted a press conference with noted English playwright Harold Pinter - another outspoken advocate of East Timorese independence - and met with Foreign Affairs Minister Dick Spring and President Mary Robinson.
During his time here, Dr Horta called on the European Union to support the holding of a UN-supervised referendum in occupied East Timor. The Indonesians have taken to claiming that the `legitimacy' of their rule has long been accepted by the majority of East Timor's population. Strangely, however, they have proved less than enamoured with the referendum proposal.
Dr Horta also predicted that the dictatorship of President Suharto would soon collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.
Suharto came to power in 1965 and promptly set about the slaughter of 500,000 left wing Indonesian activists and other, potential, opponents. The old dictator is now in his 77th year and his time on this earth is - thankfully - limited. However, the downside of Suharto's death would be that this mass murderer would thereby avoid being hauled before a War Crimes tribunal and rightfully convicted for his horrendous crimes.
On a brighter note, Dr Horta also predicted that independence for East Timor was a goal that was achievable within the next decade. He also expressed the hope that an incoming Labour administration in Britain would finally bring to an end Britain's criminal support for and arms supply to, the Indonesian regime. In recent years, Britain has replaced the United States as the regime's chief arms source.
Peru's Alberto Fujimori is having difficulty explaining away the strange deaths of all 14 MRTA guerrillas on 22 April when Peruvian Special Forces stormed the Japanese Embassy where the MRTA were holding 72 people hostage.
Remarkably, all but one of the 72 hostages made it out of the embassy alive, while two soldiers lost their lives. None of the 14 MRTA guerrillas survived the attack.
Fujimori has publicly demanded that the hostages remain silent about events inside the embassy on 22 April. He made his demand in response to increasing speculation that some of the guerrillas were executed after they had surrendered.
`Military sources' quoted by the Peruvian media have supported this version of events. It has also been confirmed in the Japanese press by Japanese nationals among the hostages.
Fujimori's attempts to cover up what now looks like a mini-massacre have also been frustrated by revelations that 12 of the guerrillas were buried without their identities being established, an act which also prevented any independent examination of the bodies. In addition, it has been revealed that the body of guerrilla leader Nestor Cerpa had more than 50 bullet wounds.
In Colombia, five thousand members of the Uwa people have threatened to commit mass suicide if the US-owned Occidental Petroleum Company is allowed to proceed with a massive drilling and excavation project on their territory.
The company, which has the support of the Colombian government has tried to buy the Uwa off with various presents and bribes, but to no avail. The Uwa maintain that the excavation and drilling will do serious and irreparable damage to what they refer to as ``their Pachamama'' - Mother Earth.
Gerry Adams met East Timorese Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr José Ramos Horta during his visit to Belfast last Thursday 24 April.
Speaking after the meeting Adams said he congratulated Dr Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo for winning the 1996 Nobel prize for their efforts to seek an Indonesian withdrawal from the small Pacific island which they have occupied since 1975.
Adams said, ``East Timor has suffered enormously and the courage of its people in standing up against Indonesian military occupation and the denial of national self-determination is an inspiration to us here in Ireland''.
The Sinn Fein leader criticised the attitude of the British government who supply Hawk jets to the Indonesian military which have been used against the East Timorese population.
``The British government attitude was summed up by former Defence Minister Alan Clarke who was responsible for the sale of the Hawks to Indonesia when he wrote in his diary `my responsibility is to my own people. I don't really fill my mind with what one set of foreigners are doing to another'''.
Adams said, ``there is growing international support for the struggle of the East Timorese people and mounting criticism of the sale of weapons to Indonesia by the British government. Sinn Fein will continue to support the demand for self-determination by the people of East Timor''.
Dr Horta was visiting Ireland at the invitation of Trocaire and the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign (ETISC). Dr Horta was awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize along with Bishop Belo, the Catholic Bishop of Dili, the capital of East Timor.
Both Horta and Belo have been outspoken opponents of the 22 year-old Indonesian occupation of their country. East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, with the active support and complicity of the West. In that time, the Indonesians have slaughtered over 200,000 people - almost a third of East Timor's population. This act of genocide has been accurately characterised by Noam Chomsky as ``perhaps the greatest death toll relative to the population, since the Holocaust.''
Yet, as Indonesia was - and is - actively supported by the major western powers its activities have never featured largely in the western media.
Indeed, compared to favoured western causes - such as Afghanistan in the 1980s - Indonesia's genocidal activities in East Timor have received almost no attention whatsoever. Over the years, the country's murderous armed forces have been supplied by the US, Britain, Germany and France, to name but a few.
In addition, neighbouring Australia is also guilty of complicity having given Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor de facto recognition in return for a share of the vast oil reserves that lie off the East Timorese coast.
The UN meanwhile has passed successive resolutions condemning the occupation but - unlike the case of Kuwait - these have yet to translate into action. However, it is hoped the recent appointment of Kofi Anan as the organisation's new General Secretary will mark the end of over twenty years of scandalous UN inactivity.
Dr Horta, who left East Timor just days before the 1975 invasion, has acted over the years as East Timor's Foreign Minister in Exile. He himself has lost three brothers and one sister to the invasion.
While in Ireland Dr Horta hosted a press conference with noted English playwright Harold Pinter - another outspoken advocate of East Timorese independence - and met with Foreign Affairs Minister Dick Spring and President Mary Robinson.
During his time here, Dr Horta called on the European Union to support the holding of a UN-supervised referendum in occupied East Timor. The Indonesians have taken to claiming that the `legitimacy' of their rule has long been accepted by the majority of East Timor's population. Strangely, however, they have proved less than enamoured with the referendum proposal.
Dr Horta also predicted that the dictatorship of President Suharto would soon collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.
Suharto came to power in 1965 and promptly set about the slaughter of 500,000 left wing Indonesian activists and other, potential, opponents. The old dictator is now in his 77th year and his time on this earth is - thankfully - limited. However, the downside of Suharto's death would be that this mass murderer would thereby avoid being hauled before a War Crimes tribunal and rightfully convicted for his horrendous crimes.
On a brighter note, Dr Horta also predicted that independence for East Timor was a goal that was achievable within the next decade. He also expressed the hope that an incoming Labour administration in Britain would finally bring to an end Britain's criminal support for and arms supply to, the Indonesian regime. In recent years, Britain has replaced the United States as the regime's chief arms source.
MRTA guerrillas killed after surrendering
Peru's Alberto Fujimori is having difficulty explaining away the strange deaths of all 14 MRTA guerrillas on 22 April when Peruvian Special Forces stormed the Japanese Embassy where the MRTA were holding 72 people hostage.
Remarkably, all but one of the 72 hostages made it out of the embassy alive, while two soldiers lost their lives. None of the 14 MRTA guerrillas survived the attack.
Fujimori has publicly demanded that the hostages remain silent about events inside the embassy on 22 April. He made his demand in response to increasing speculation that some of the guerrillas were executed after they had surrendered.
`Military sources' quoted by the Peruvian media have supported this version of events. It has also been confirmed in the Japanese press by Japanese nationals among the hostages.
Fujimori's attempts to cover up what now looks like a mini-massacre have also been frustrated by revelations that 12 of the guerrillas were buried without their identities being established, an act which also prevented any independent examination of the bodies. In addition, it has been revealed that the body of guerrilla leader Nestor Cerpa had more than 50 bullet wounds.
Colombian people threaten suicide
In Colombia, five thousand members of the Uwa people have threatened to commit mass suicide if the US-owned Occidental Petroleum Company is allowed to proceed with a massive drilling and excavation project on their territory.
The company, which has the support of the Colombian government has tried to buy the Uwa off with various presents and bribes, but to no avail. The Uwa maintain that the excavation and drilling will do serious and irreparable damage to what they refer to as ``their Pachamama'' - Mother Earth.