BY BOB AIKEN
JAKARTA, Indonesia - With the resignation of Indonesian president Suharto May 21, East Timorese independence fighters have stepped up their struggle.

More than 3,000 people rallied June 10 at the University of East Timor in Dili, the East Timor capital, to reject President B.J. Habibie's June 9 offer of "special status" for East Timor.

On June 12, nine days into a protest by more than 250 inmates at the Becora jail in Dili, Habibie released 12 students imprisoned there for "anti-Indonesian" activities. The jailed students delayed their release by one day in solidarity with the other prisoners who are protesting prison conditions and demanding the release of East Timorese political prisoners.

Habibie initially said Xanana Gusmao, imprisoned in Cipinang jail in Jakarta, and other East Timorese political prisoners would not be freed. On June 13, however, Habibie said he was considering the release of Xanana, a leader of Frelitin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor), the organization leading the fight against the Indonesian army occupation.

Seven hundred Indonesian troops broke up a protest by 1,000 East Timorese students at the Foreign Ministry June 12. The troops attacked the students with batons and forced them to board buses provided by the military. The protest, which drew East Timorese students from across Java and Bali, was called to demand the release of political prisoners and a referendum in East Timor on self-determination.

East Timorese students "stood in the front line" of this year's protests against Suharto, "among those urging action," Russuo, an organizer of the Jakarta protest, told the Militant in an interview here June 4. "Now it's the East Timorese time." "The growth of the movement against Suharto has meant more space for us," Russuo said, but "the legacy of the Suharto regime remains. The military influence is still strong."

1975 Indonesian invasion
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony in the eastern part of the chain of islands that make up Indonesia, was invaded and occupied by the Indonesian armed forces in 1975, with the collusion of the imperialist powers, the United States and Australia in particular. The slaughter and famine that followed cost tens of thousands of lives out of a population of 700,000.

Despite 23 years of brutal repression, however, the Suharto regime was unable to defeat the East Timorese struggle for national self-determination.

"The East Timorese will not accept and will fight" any continuation of Suharto's policy, Russuo declared. Under Habibie, "the official stance," that East Timor is a fully integrated province of Indonesia , "remains the same," he said.

The level of repression by the Indonesian state remains high in East Timor, Russuo said, citing the killing of five civilians in a house at Liquica April 22. "Killings occur almost every day," he said. The activities of independence fighters are "considered criminal offenses," he explained.

In the two weeks since Suharto resigned, "the situation has definitely been more open," he added.

People in Dili have been hit by the economic crisis sweeping Indonesia, Russuo said, but "economic hardship has been experienced for years" in East Timor. "Food has been scarce since the Indonesian invasion," as much of the livestock have been killed, and travel restrictions imposed by the military prevented people from growing crops where they normally did.

As part of its response to the current economic crisis, the Indonesian government has forced East Timorese to sell 1,000 cows at very low prices to be used as "food for rich people" in Indonesia during the last few months, Russuo said.

Most people in East Timor are subsistence farmers, he said, and "many people can't grow food because their land has been taken over" by migrants from Indonesia, in a program organized by the Indonesian government. "When the East Timorese protest" about this, Russuo said, the government, which doesn't recognize traditional land ownership, says they have no land title certificate. They are also "accused of collaboration with Fretilin."

"We understand that the transmigrants are also poor people from Java and Bali," Russuo said. "We accept their presence there as friends, so long as they take land which is not being used."

Part of how the East Timorese students are testing out the newly acquired political space in Indonesia is the formation of a national East Timorese student organization, which was announced at a press conference in Yogyakarta June 6. Local East Timorese student organizations had originally been set up by the government to promote integration with Indonesia, Russuo said, but these legal organizations are led by pro-independence fighters today.

This reporter had met June 2 with a spirited group of 20 East Timorese students in Bandung. With translation in both Indonesian and Tetun, the East Timorese language, they outlined the fight for East Timorese self-determination. "Ninety percent of East Timorese support independence," the leader of their group, Garry, stressed.

The students, some of the 400-500 East Timorese students in Bandung, were excited about the demonstration called for Jakarta, and planned to take part.

Russuo said he expected hundreds of East Timorese students from across Java and Bali to come to the action. We will "protest until they adequately address our demands." Timorese workers in Jakarta were part of the pro- independence movement, he said, and some will probably join the protest too.

Some of the Indonesian pro-democracy groups "don't support East Timorese self-determination," he said, while others "have asked to join the demonstration.

"Our standpoint is that the East Timor question is an integral part of the reformasi."  
 
 
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