Statement on East Timor

Original: Portuguese

The Socialist International Committee on Local Authorities, meeting in Cartaxo on 10-11 September 1999, strongly condemns the terror and violence which the militias and the Indonesian army have inflicted in East Timor since the referendum on independence.

The Committee cannot accept this disregard of the will of the people of East Timor who have voted unmistakably and by a large majority in favour of independence.

The Committee demands that the Indonesian authorities ensure that the militias and their army respect the will of the people and the result of the vote which they themselves proposed under the auspices of the United Nations, and put an end to the massive deportation of civilians.

The Committee calls on the international community to ensure that the law is upheld in East Timor as elsewhere, and affirms its complete solidarity with the whole population there, which is today victim of this new barbarity.

In light of these latest developments in East Timor,

considering that the will for independence and self-government of the people of East Timor, a people who have suffered oppression for so long, was expressed by a large majority in the referendum,

taking into account that the Socialist International, and particularly its Committee on Local Authorities, has always fought for self-government and local democracy throughout the world.

The Committee,

Calls for the decision of the people of East Timor to be respected and for the consolidation of the independence process in peace, in accordance with the United Nations decisions and presence there, and

Calls for the holding of democratic elections of local authorities as soon as it become possible and the support of every initiative facilitating that objective.