[asia-apec 380] Nobel winner: include Timor on APEC

[mario mapanao]

Date: 09 Mar 1997 22:58:21 -0500 (EST)
Reply-To: Conference "tapol.etimor" <tapol.etimor at conf.gn.apc.org>
From: maggie at web.apc.org
Subject: Nobel winner: Include Timor on APEC
To: Recipients of conference <tapol.etimor at conf.gn.apc.org>
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From: maggie (Maggie Helwig)

/* Written 12:39 PM  Mar  9, 1997 by igc:fbp in web:reg.easttimor */
/* ---------- "Nobel winner: Include Timor on APEC" ---------- */
 VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 8 (UPI) -- A Nobel laureate is urging
(Saturday) the leaders of Asian and Pacific Rim nations to discuss human
rights when they hold their regional trade summit later this year.
   The leaders of Asia-Pacific Economic Conference member nations -
including Canada and the United States - are scheduled to convene in
Vancouver in November for their annual meeting.
   Last year's co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end
Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, says, "Human rights
and the environment have been off the agenda."
   In Vancouver on an international speaking tour, Ramos-Horta says it has
become "increasingly difficult" for APEC countries to ignore East Timor.
   Indonesian forces invaded East Timor in 1975 to put down a fledgling
independence movement in the former Portuguese colony. About six months
later Indonesia declared the region its 17th (sic) province, a claim the
United Nations does not recognize.
   Human rights monitoring groups have accused Indonesia of human rights
abuses in East Timor. The London-based Amnesty International estimates
200,000 have been killed by the Indonesian military.
   Indonesia has condemned the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Ramos- Horta
and Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos-Filepe Ximenes Belo. It has branded
Ramos-Horta a troublemaker and radical.
   Ramos-Horta was in Vancouver hosting several lectures and opening a
photo exhibit by Canadian photographer Elaine Briere, whose work portrays
the people of East Timor.
   Canada's growing business links with Indonesia have been front-page news
in Canada over recent months, with Canadian companies looking to develop a
massive gold deposit in that country.
   Ramos-Horta, who has lived in exile since fleeing East Timor in 1975,
says Canada must use its economic clout to urge Indonesia "to change its
behavior toward its own people."
 He says, "The most potent force of change is public opinion, not
government."  ---