TIMOR TODAY 1/11/1999

TIMOR TODAY 1/11/1999

For full text and photos see http://www.easttimor.com

PHOTOS

a) The last of the Indonesian Military troops amass in front of a ship at Dili port Saturday as they prepare to leave East Timor, marking the end of 23 years of Indonesian occupation. ( Jimin Lai via Reuters - Pool)

b) East Timorese leader Xanana' Gusmao, left, shakes hands with Indonesian Ambassador of the Indonesian Task Force in East Timor Taufik Soedarbo as he bids farewell to the Indonesian army Saturday, Oct. 30, 1999, at Dili airport, East TImor. Top Indonesian military and civilian officers met with Gusmao at the airport and departed East Timor on an Indonesian Hercules C-130 plane, ending 23 years of Indonesian occupation in the country. (AP Photo/Jimin Lai, Pool)

c) Timorese women hold their children on the front steps of the Becora Parish Church before a mass baptism of 55 children, in Dili, East Timor Friday, October 29,1999. This was the first mass baptism since the Timorese voted in a referendum for independence. The district of Becora was a milita stronghold before the multi-national peacekeepers secured the neighborhood. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

NEWS

1) Disgraced TNI troops quit Timor 1/11/99 (The Australian) THEY left the same way they arrived - in disgrace. The Indonesian army tried to sneak out of Dili yesterday, refusing to face the East Timorese whose lives they have done their best to destroy since invading 24 years ago.

2) Xanana Gusmao Awarded EU Parliament's Sakharov Prize 1/11/99 (Lusa) East Timor independence leader Xanana Gusmao has been overwhelmingly chosen the winner of the European Parliament's 1999 Sakharov Prize.

3) Smiles and salutes as sun sets on Indonesia's occupation of East Timor 1/11/99 (AFP) Standing bolt upright after singing the national anthem, the Indonesian soldiers cleared their weapons in unison and marched off across the tarmac as the sun set on Dili's Comoro airport.

4) Australian ministers heading to UN for more discussions on East Timor 1/11/99 (AFP) Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Sunday he would head to the United Nations this week for more discussions on East Timor.

5) Balinese reach out to E. Timorese refugees 1/11/99 (Jakarta Post) The flamboyant sociologist, Putu Suasta, and dozens of volunteers, artists, scholars and students sit on the floor packing bags of instant noodles, rice, sugar and other staple foods in a stuffy warehouse in Sanur Raya, Denpasar.

6) World Bank Faces Enormous Reconstruction Task 1/11/99 (IPS) A World Bank mission travels to East Timor to examine what needs to be done to rebuild the devastated state formerly occupied by Indonesia even as Bank officials admit they face major challenges.

7) East Timor Is Not Yesterday's Story Oct 24, 1999 - By Noam Chomsky At last report, the US has provided no funds for the Australian-led UN intervention force (in contrast, Japan, long a fervent supporter of Indonesia, offered $100 million). But that is perhaps not surprising, in the light of its refusal to pay any of the costs of the UN civilian operations even in Kosovo. ... The chorus of self-adulation has subsided a bit, though not much. Far more important than these shameful performances is the failure to act-at once, and decisively-to save the remnants of one of the most terrible tragedies of this awful century.

8) Jakarta won't meddle in Timor force choice-Wiranto 1/11/99 (Reuters) Indonesia's coordinating minister for security and political affairs, General Wiranto, said on Saturday that Indonesia would not interfere in the choice of which country leads the U.N. peacekeeping force in East Timor.

EDITORIAL

9) Horrors of E. Timor decolonization 1/11/99 (Jakarta Post) By Onghokham What else can one call today's Indonesian policies on East Timor but a process of decolonization? Indonesia in l999 is in the same position as any decolonizing power 50 years ago. The world has no sympathy for it .... All Indonesians should be aware of the colonial past, and I do believe many still remember how bad colonialism is.

10) ASEAN In The Dock Again Over Timor. 1/11/99 By Farish A Noor In some ASEAN countries, the peace keeping effort has been billed as an affront to the national pride and sovereignty of Indonesia and ASEAN in general. Some ASEAN leaders, most notably the Indonesian elite themselves, have stood on their soapboxes decrying this 'invasion' of peace-keepers as yet another example of the politics of neocolonialism at work... Yet from 1975 to the present, the leaders of ASEAN stood by and paid lip service to the Indonesian elite. The dominant protocol within ASEAN then (and now) was not to interfere in the domestic concerns of others.

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