Raise Your Voice on Behalf of East Timor
08 November 1997
7th December 1997 – 22 years of occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, and one year after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Bishop Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos Horta.
The Indonesia Working Group in Germany missio, Misereor, Diakonisches Werk der EKD (Protestant Church in Germany) and the Franciscan Mission Centre invite you to send Christmas cards to Bishop Belo, on behalf of the people in East Timor and to include East Timor in the church service on the 7th December 1997.Raise Your Voice on Behalf of East Timor
Do you remember? One year ago the catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and his fellow countryman José Ramos Horta received the Nobel Peace Prize for their engagement for a peaceful solution of the East Timor conflict. The former Portuguese colony has been unlawfully occupied by the Indonesian government for 22 years. During this time a genocide took place. More than 200,000 people have died because of massacres, arbitrary executions and a famine blockade. The United Nations never recognised the annexation because it violates the right to self-determination. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize put East Timor briefly in the public limelight. It supplied the people of East Timor with hope and a new self-confidence. Not only they but people all over the world related the Nobel Peace Prize to a hope for a peaceful solution to the violent conflict. They include the church relief organisation missio which has given support to Bishop Belo and Josè Ramos Horta for many years. Missio, Misereor and Diakonisches Werk der EKD (Protestant Church in Germany) stress the importance of all churches to stand up for political solutions, keeping in mind that humanitarian aid is pushed to its limits when human beings are oppressed. The Nobel Peace Prize led many governments to careful rethinking of their policy on arms sales. However, it became clear that a Nobel Peace Prize was not enough to create peace.
News from an occupied Country
The Indonesian government has been trying for the last 22 years to convince the rest of the world that the East Timorese people agree with the integration of the island, and that the resistance was defeated and a state of normality reached. However, every-day life in East Timor tells a different story. A climate of oppression is dominating, people are disappearing, and getting arbitrarily arrested and tortured. At the same time the resistance in East Timor increases, manifesting itself in demonstrations and many peaceful actions. Everyone in East Timor who is trying to support actively the protection of human rights risks his life. In November 1991 Indonesian military opened fire on a peaceful funeral procession without warning and killed more than 270 people. Although world-wide protests followed the massacre did not lead to a revision of Indonesia’s East Timor policy. Since the award of the Peace Prize the situation in East Timor has drastically worsened. The Indonesian government sent more troops to the island. The people’s hopes for a dialogue with the Indonesian government were disappointed.
German Interests: Good Business Relations
The German government considers the countries in South East Asia as extremely attractive economically, concerning markets, cheap imports and industrial co-operation. This is why it is not surprising that human rights are not seriously discussed during state visits. At a meeting with Bishop Belo, end of last year, Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed to push for a peaceful and just solution for East Timor. However, there have not been any tangible results from these promises so far.
Meanwhile the German government continues to deliver weapons to Indonesia. By doing so they ignore several resolutions of the West European Union and the European Parliament. According to these resolutions all Member States should impose an embargo on arms sales to Indonesia immediately and stop all military treaties. The German government only refers to the advisory character of the agreements and maintains the arms sales. According to government sources 680 permits were given for the export of weapons and other arms equipment to Indonesia between 1986 and 1996. The government guarantees these deals with 688.8 m DM. Germany is the third largest arms supplier for Indonesia after the USA and Great Britain.
Bishop Belo: Stop the Weapon Sales!
Bishop Belo and the politician Jose Ramos Horta have declared themselves publicly against arms sales to Indonesia. Some months ago Bishop Belo said in London: „As pastor in East Timor, whose people have suffered terribly from the effects of armaments made in countries far from our shores, I appeal to the government of the United Kingdom and it’s allies, whose factories make a variety of weapons which are sold for use on land, sea and in the air, to consider the dreadful consequences of this so-called defence industry. Please, I beg you, restrict further the conditions under which such trade is permitted.”
What you can do:
Whether the situation in East Timor changes in the future also depends on whether the international community – and this includes us, too – recognises the injustice and protests against it. For this reason the Indonesia Working Group urged the German government to change their policy on Indonesia profoundly and to stop all arms sales to Indonesia. This was articulated through a newspaper advert and letters to all German MPs. Such initiatives cannot be successful immediately, but every little step might bring us closer to our aim. It is especially important that the people in East Timor know about our solidarity and feel strengthened by it. Please write to Bishop Belo that you include the people in East Timor in your prayers on the 7th December, the day that stands for the beginning of a long time of oppression and injustice in East Timor. Please express your disapproval of German weapon sales to Indonesia and ask the German government to push stronger for a peaceful and just solution than it was pursued so far. You can write your own postcards or order those we have prepared for that purpose. We have also prepared a leaflet with information on the situation in East Timor which will give you advice for the design of a church service. Please send the postcards to the Indonesian Working Group (c/o Watch Indonesia!) until the 17th December 1997. We will collect the cards and transfer them to East Timor. Besides this we will inform the German government and the MPs about the number and content of your writings and publicise this on the 20th December 1997. Do not hesitate to order leaflets and postcards.
Just call or fax us:
Indonesia Working Group (old address! for actual address please refer to main page)
c/o Watch Indonesia!
Haus der Demokratie
Friedrichstr. 165
10117 Berlin
Germanyphone/fax: +30-2044409 or: +6221-336108
e-mail: watchindonesia@watchindonesia.org
Who is the Indonesia Working Group?
Facing the increasing export of arms sales to Indonesia and the serious human rights abuses in Indonesia and East Timor the Indonesian Working Group started its activities in 1994, initiated by a Christian campaign called ‘Production for life – Stop the arms sales!’ . Its members come from Watch Indonesia!, IMBAS (The Initiative for Human Rights of all Citizens of the ASEAN Countries), the Ecumenical Working Group in the parish of Storman and the BUKO campaign ‘Stop the arms sales!’. The Indonesia Working Group meets four times a year to develop information material and suggestions for campaigns.
This is a joint initiative of the Indonesia Working Group, missio Misereor, Diakonisches Werk der EKD (Protestant Church in Germany) and the Franciscan Mission Centre.
Indonesia Working Group: Watch Indonesia!; BUKO-‘Stop the arms sales!’; IMBAS – The Initiative for Human Rights of all Citizens of the ASEAN Countries; Campaign ‘Production for Life – Stop the arms sales’; Ecumenical Working Group Stormarn/Hamburg.
- Delivery of post cards to Bishop Belo, Cologne, March 01, 1998
Photo: Olaf Dierker
