From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Timor: London demo to protest sentences
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 23:14:58 GMT

/** reg.easttimor: 352.0 **/
** Topic: London demo to protest sentences **
** Written  3:56 pm  Jul 23, 1992 by gn:tapol in cdp:reg.easttimor **
 
            SAVAGE SENTENCES ARE UNJUST AND ILLEGAL:
       DEMONSTRATION AGAINST MILITARY REGIME OF INDONESIA
 
All are welcome to attend the demonstration, organised by the
British Coalition for East Timor (BCET) and Tapol (Indonesia Human
Rights Campaign), to protest against the sentences passed against
East Timorese citizens by Indonesian authorities. A letter of
protest will be submitted to the Indonesian Embassy.
 
DETAILS OF THE DEMONSTRATION
Date: Thursday 30 July 1992
Time: 11.00 onwards
Venue: Indonesian Embas
sy, 38 Grosvenor Square, London, W1
(Enquiries to gn:tapol welcome)
 
Savage sentences have been meted out to the East Timorese who
took part in the peaceful demonstration in Dili, East Timor on
12 November 1991, where hundreds of East Timorese were massacred
by Indonesian troops.  Gregorio da Cunha Saldanha, a 24 year old
former civil servant, was sentenced to life imprisonment at the
end of June 1992 for alleged subversion: subversion amounting to
no more than attending a peaceful demonstration.  Harsh sentences
of between 6 and 15 years have been handed down to Timorese
students who protested the Dili massacre through a peaceful
demonstration in Jakarta on 19 November 1991. 
 
Yet, those who perpetrated the Dili massacre, the officers of the
Indonesian Armed Forces, have escaped justice: not one officer
has been tried for organising and executing the massacre.  Ten
lower rank officers, who admitted opening fire on the Timorese
in Dili, were tried for "disciplinary" offences and given
sentences from only 8 to 20 months.
 
The Draconian sentences are unjust and inequitable.  The
murderers remain unpunished while innocent people have either
been killed or imprisoned for disproportionate periods which in
no way reflect their "crime": peaceful demonstration calling for
self-determination.  In fact, the legality of the trials in
Jakarta, and therefore the sentences, is extremely dubious. 
Trying the defendants under Indonesian Law is contrary to the
Indonesian Constitution of 1945 due to the illegal annexation of
East Timor in 1975 by Indonesia after the country had already
declared independence.  The numerous UN Resolutions calling for
the withdrawal of Indonesia from East Timor reinforce this
argument.
 
The UK Government is tacitly condoning the human rights abuses
in East Timor.  Since the 1980s, the UK has been the second
largest supplier of military aircraft, naval vessels and advanced
weapons systems to Indonesia.  In the wake of the massacre in
Dii, British Aerospace is close to signing a deal for 40 Hawk
trainer/fighter aircraft worth more than PS600mn.  Hawk aircraft
have been seen in use in East Timor.  Selling anything to the
Indonesian armed forces signals British condonation of the
Indonesian crimes against humanity. More concretely, the deal
violates the European Parliament resolution passed in the wake
of the massacre (December 1991) calling for the UN and the EC to
ban arms sales to Indonesia.
 .
** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **

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