retaining the religion
of their previous
Portuguese masters, is
85% Catholic. This
war is based on
money, but it is made
possible, and maybe
even fueled by, reli-
gious differences.
This hasn’t seemed
to have stopped the
big powers from
warming up to the vir- jg, :
tual dictatorship.
Canada has consistently attempted to
forge a tie with Indonesia under the’
guise of Pacific Rim kinship, some-
thing shrugged off by a smug Jean
Chrétien at last year’s APEC summit.
Canada’s even abstained in voting

against the Indonesian government at
the United Nations.

ut despite a woeful lack of
B pressure from countries like

Canada, things are changing in
Indonesia.

The violence against the Timorese,
| and the hopelessness they face, hasn't
stopped them from trying. They
protested in Dili in 1991, where two
hundred died at the hands of security
forces. Then there was the daring sit-in
-at the American embassy in Jakarta in

the fall of 1994, when East Timorese

Flores See

Nd et

  

Sra, Seww S00

<-

of the compound, hoping for both
attention and extradition, and getting
both. 06

And now, the Indonesian govern-
ment is offering the Timorese a deal.
Habibie and Co. are willing to grant
Timor special status if Indonesia is
recognized by both the United Nations
and Portugal as being the masters of
the territory.

But that has nothing on the latest
demonstrations, held not just by
Timorese, but on Timorese soil. This
summer, students are demonstrating,
not in the thousands and tens of thou-
sands, as they did in Jakarta, but per-
haps just as potent, they gather in the
hundreds on the campuses of ‘East
Timor. They are gathering and they are
not being shot down. Or rather, they
hadn't been shot down until June 28, as

   

° ae? 12st H

- students camped out within the gates __.

Th 7 Longs = 9 mumere ae 0

 

sence LP: Rigas

this article was being written.

Evidently, at one rally, a young
Timorese man was gunned down by
government troops and anywhere from
four to six others (depending on the
source) were injured in Baucau, a town
80 kilometers outside Dili, where
ambassadors from the Netherlands,
England and Austria had gathered for a
fact finding mission. Things, depending
on which news bureau you listen to, are
getting tense. But, then again, this is a
different place now. East Timor is no
longer as isolated as it once was. A
spokesperson from the British Embassy
is demanding an investigation.

The students of Indonesia played a
role in toppling a government. Maybe,
before long, they can play a role in cre-
ating a country. Anything, good or bad,

seems possible.

 

1980 - Kwangju, Korea

On April 19 of that year, the army
descended upon protesters in a

foreshadowing of Tiananmen, killing

thousands, though the numbers have

never been verified. The massacre led to

the firing of people high up in the

government.

   
  
   
 

 

1989 - Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
Millions of students and workers file
into Beijing's regal Tiananmen Square,
the place where the nation of China

July 1998 Page 10 E. TIMOR

was first proclaimed by Mao, and the
psychological heart of the country.
Gathered initially to mourn the passing
of a moderate politician, Hu Yaobang,
and to demand Yaobang’s posthumous
“rehabilitation,” it quickly and
spontaneously morphed into an
exciting, passionate expression of what
the emerging, and idealistic, generation
hoped for. That hope was crushed
under the tracks of tanks, on the
evening of June 3-4, and killed .

thousands in the process.

1998 - East Timor

Hundreds of students gathered at the
campuses of East Timor and this time
no one was shot down. However, on
June 28 one young Timorese protester
was gunned down by government
troops in Baucau, where the
ambassadors from the Netherlands,
England and Austria had gathered on a
fact finding mission. It is unknown
exactly how many protesters were
injured, but the count so far is
somewhere around four to six.