“We are establishing a new mission which will stay here and offer technical assistance and advice and work for the government and we will work hand in glove with the new government and appeal to the international community to remain engaged and to work with us.”
“So for us this is not the end of the road, we are not saying goodbye,” he stressed. “It's a new beginning and we will be here to work with the government.”
East Timor has also formally requested entry into the Community of Portuguese Speaking Nations (CPLP) with its final acceptance to be announced at the next summit in Brazil in July.
East Timor had been a colony of Portugal and after a brief rebellion, in 1974, Portugal withdrew. Indonesia seized East Timor in December 1975 and after a bitter struggle which cost the lives of more than a fourth of East Timor’s 650,000 population, Indonesia finally agreed, in 1975, to a plebiscite overseen by the United Nations. Fighting continued, however, with Indonesia supporting para-militaries which terrorised those wishing independence. Now, with a new Indonesian Administration and a new national independence, there is great optimism in East Timor.
For additional information, please read: East Timor: Genocide in Paradise; by Matthew Jardine and with an introduction by Noam Chomsky, published by Odonian Press. Order this book from your local bookstore or Common Courage Press: http://www.commoncouragepress.com/jardine_timor.html
“So for us this is not the end of the road, we are not saying goodbye,” he stressed. “It's a new beginning and we will be here to work with the government.”
East Timor has also formally requested entry into the Community of Portuguese Speaking Nations (CPLP) with its final acceptance to be announced at the next summit in Brazil in July.
East Timor had been a colony of Portugal and after a brief rebellion, in 1974, Portugal withdrew. Indonesia seized East Timor in December 1975 and after a bitter struggle which cost the lives of more than a fourth of East Timor’s 650,000 population, Indonesia finally agreed, in 1975, to a plebiscite overseen by the United Nations. Fighting continued, however, with Indonesia supporting para-militaries which terrorised those wishing independence. Now, with a new Indonesian Administration and a new national independence, there is great optimism in East Timor.
For additional information, please read: East Timor: Genocide in Paradise; by Matthew Jardine and with an introduction by Noam Chomsky, published by Odonian Press. Order this book from your local bookstore or Common Courage Press: http://www.commoncouragepress.com/jardine_timor.html