MateBEAN> ABILIO MOBILIZES ATAMBUA RESIDENTS FOR DEMONSTRATION

[SiaR News Service <siar@minihub.org>]

ABILIO MOBILIZES ATAMBUA RESIDENTS FOR DEMONSTRATION

DILI (MateBEAN, 26/6/98).  Thousands of residents of Atambua, Nusa Tenggara
Timur (NTT) province of the Republic of Indonesia, were mobilized by
Governor Abilio Soares for a pro-integration demonstration in Dili. This
was done as a response to an earlier rally held by tens of thousands of
pro-referendum students and ordinary people.

According to a MateBEAN source in Dili, capital of East Timor, of the
thousands of pro-integration masses demonstrating in front of the
Governor's office the majority were NTT residents who physically resemble
the people of East Timor.

Because most of the demonstrators were NTT residents, the last evening
broadcast of TVRI, Friday (26 June) did not show close-up shots and the
images were thus not clear.  All that was shown were crowds on two trucks
and some motorcycles behind a screen of smoke from tyres burnt by the
masses.

Another source in Dili stated that a pro-referendum rally held by students
and ordinary people had taken place on Sunday (28 June),  with many more
people participating than at the demonstration with people from NTT
(reportedly only11 truck-loads).  Pro-referendum crowds for the Sunday
event were almost as large as the earlier (26 June) rally, in which 80
trucks were used and hundreds of motorcycles.

Apart from using NTT residents, Abilio also forced civil servants to join
in the demonstration. Some of them refused. Abilio threatened to fire civil
servants who refused to join the rally.

 The counter-demonstration reveals very clearly the fierce political
manipulations of the Indonesian military in East Timor, aimed at
maintaining the status quo.

Military political manipulations also take place outside Dili.  In Jakarta,
some time ago, the intelligence branch of the Greater Jakarta Military
Command forced Hercules, the Tanah Abang gangster to mobilize his
underlings, many from NTT and Ambon, to form a demonstration.  The
demonstration was intended to counter the rally held by thousands of East
Timorese students at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Friday, 12 June, at
which students demanded a referendum for East Timor.

The Indonesian military is also involved in using former Fretilin leader,
Abilio Araujo, to campaign against demands by the people of East Timor and
the international community, who want a referendum for East Timor as the
best solution to ending the 23 year conflict in the former Portuguese
colony.

It would appear that the military are trying to use rallies to show the
three European Union Ambassadors visiting East Timor since Friday, 16 June,
that the people of East Timor are happy with integration.

The trio, made up of the British, Dutch and Austrian ambassadors had
earlier intended to visit East Timor in the beginning of June.  However,
their visit was delayed at the request of Alatas (Indonesian Minister of
Foreign Affairs)***