Mr President, I would like to start by congratulating my colleague Mr Costa Neves on the intervention he has just made, which I endorse wholeheartedly. There really has been a spirit of co-operation and total unanimity on the part of the Portuguese MEPs here on matters relating to East Timor. We are very familiar with this problem, as everyone knows. In unison with what is happening in our country, where the people have taken to the streets en masse, in order to demonstrate and to show their complete repudiation of what could be called Indonesia’s betrayal and of the atrocities experienced by the long-suffering people of Timor, (there has been a unanimous reaction in my country, and fortunately in many other countries too), we are working here, in our various political groups in order to draft a document which this Parliament can approve with a huge majority, if not unanimously. What we are doing follows on from this expression of popular feeling. Mr President, I should add that an agreement was signed under the auspices of the United Nations and its Secretary-General in May of this year, precisely in order to conduct a serious consultation with the people of Timor. The United Nations sent a mission there, and these people were followed by international observers and hordes of journalists. The referendum was carried out, and was unequivocal, given that, as my colleague pointed out, not only did 98% of registered voters participate, but 78% showed that they were in favour of independence. This was completely unequivocal. After this, Indonesia was bound, by the agreement made under the auspices of the United Nations, to maintain order and to guarantee the transition to democracy. Not only did it fail to do this, it turned Timor into a veritable hell, by means of the militias and the Indonesian armed forces who make use of them, and they subjected the population to the situation we see now which has become extremely critical. We have now had a statement from the Security Council of the United Nations which condemns what has taken place in Timor, recognises the rights of its people, and orders the dispatch of a peacekeeping force. In addition to this peacekeeping force, help for the population, many of whom are sheltering in the mountains and are starving, must get there as quickly as possible, via humanitarian corridors. Children are dying, women are dying, priests have been singled out – because unfortunately, the repression has also had a religious angle – and they are the chosen victims of the Indonesian torturers acting freely in Timor. In spite of the fact that President Habibie himself has admitted that Indonesia was not capable of maintaining order, and that he invited a United Nations peacekeeping team to go into Timor, for various reasons after this, the arrival of this team has been delayed. And therefore, the whole international community, and therefore the European Parliament too, must demand that these two things be done; that the peace corps go as quickly as possible in order to re-establish peace in East Timor, and so that humanitarian aid should get there. In addition to this, it is essential that journalists, who are the world’s eyes in terms of what is taking place there, should be allowed to return to Timor, since they were forced to leave, as were the international observers. I hope that the European Parliament can match up to its responsibilities and is able to condemn what has happened in East Timor and to come to the rapid and efficient aid of its people. (Applause)

Political group: PSE