Precedence: bulk Source; The Irish Times Tuesday, April 6, 1999 REBEL LEADER ORDERS RESUMPTION OF WAR EAST TIMOR: The jailed East Timorese rebel leader, Xanana Gusmao, yesterday ordered East Timorese to resume their resistance war against Indonesian troops after he learned pro-Indonesian militia had killed 17 East Timorese, his lawyer said. "Xanana has ordered the independence guerrillas and all the people to take up arms against the Indonesian armed forces and the paramilitary groups that have carried out murders of East Timorese," his lawyer, Mr Johnson Panjaitan, quoted a statement issued by Gusmao as saying. He said that Gusmao had relayed the order to his followers in East Timor at 4.00 p.m. (10.00 a.m. Irish time), when he had learned that two people had been killed and seven injured in an attack by Indonesian-backed militia in East Timor. "But since then he learned that 17 people had been killed in the attack" on Monday on Mauboke in the Liquisa district west of the East Timorese capital of Dili, Mr Johnson said. Attempts by journalists to reach Gusmao himself by phone at his Jakarta suburban detention house were met with the news that his telephone had been "temporarily disconnected". Mr Johnson said the guerrilla leader felt he had been "lied to" by the Indonesian military, and accused the international community of "passivity" in trusting the Indonesian military more than the people of East Timor. The declaration was an abrupt reversal for Gusmao, who in the past months had continued to call on his guerrilla fighters to show restraint and not to react against provocations by the militia or the army. It came as the UN was preparing to consult the people of the former Portuguese territory invaded by Indonesian troops in 1975 on whether they wanted independence from Indonesia or accept a broad autonomy offer. In a three page explanatory statement faxed to embassies here and entitled "Brink of War in East Timor" Gusmao said "the rage and desperation of our people demand from me loyalty and firmness". "I know that the East Timorese people will suffer another bloodbath, but I also know that we have no other alternative," he said. The statement was signed with Gusmao's old resistance title, commander of the Falintil (the armed wing resistance movement) and the words - Homeland or Death - to resist is to win - the struggle continues. Details of the attack could not be immediately confirmed by Indonesian military and police officials in Liquisa district. - (AFP) Mr Tom Hyland, of the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, said yesterday: "It is not surprising that Xanana has made this statement. The Indonesian military has timed the latest killings of civilians in East Timor to coincide with events in Kosovo in the hope that the media's attention can be deflected from their activities" The Campaign has called on the Irish Government to spearhead a drive to freeze all economic aid to Indonesia until the Jakarta authorities withdraw their military forces from East Timor. The Campaign also called for the Foreign Minister, Mr Andrews, to take practical and immediate steps by placing Irish human rights monitors on the ground in East Timor.*** ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html
