East Timor Embassy in Darwin

East Timor Embassy in Darwin

Media Release
Tuesday, Sept 13, 1999
East Timor Embassy in Darwin

The East Timor Embassy opens tomorrow.

From Wednesday, September 14th the East Timor Embassy, joined by the Aboriginal Embassy have begun a permanent prescence in Raintree Park, at the top of the Darwin City Mall.

The objective of the Embassy is to provide a public focus for people to combine their voices and actions in pressing for the immediate deployment of an Australian lead international peacekeeping force into East and West Timor; and to pressure the UN and Australian government to immediately begin emergency airdrops of food, water and medicines into East Timor to prevent widespread death from starvation and disease.

We are also calling for the speedy withdrawal of the Indonesian military from East Timor and for the Australian government to automatically grant unconditional refugee status on those East Timorese who manage to escape the genocide in their own country and arrive in Australia.

All members of the Darwin community, visiting UNAMET staff and the local and international press are invited to the East Timor Embassy opening on Wednesday 15th at 12 noon (tomorrow). East Timorese refugees will be officially welcomed to Darwin by Larrakia leader June Mills. Keynote speakers will include Dawn Lawrie, an East Timorese Catholic priest recently evacuated to Darwin, Rob Hitchcock to put the ACTU perspective, Rob Wesley Smith from Australians For a Free East Timor and, we expect, a UNAMET representative.

It is vitally important that the Australian people keep up the pressure on all governments to get multi-lateral action on East Timor NOW. If peacekeepers take another 7 - 10 days to go into East Timor, it will be too late for many thousands of East Timorese people.

For further information please contact Ilana Eldridge/ Sonny Inbaraj (tel: ++0061 89485333; Rob Wesley-Smith (AFFET) (89832113); Jude Conway (ETISC) (89484458)

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