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Number: 1.1/GRPRTT/XI/1997		Dili, 9 November 1997
IMPORTANT
Attachments (4 pages)
Re: Report on the Formation of the Movement for Reconciliation and Unity
of the People of East Timor

To: The Governor of East Timor in Dili

Respectfully,

	The problem of East Timor is a political problem
involving the right to self-determination of the East Timorese
people.

	Even though the problem has political nuances, we
nevertheless have thus far tried to handle and resolve it --
as a way of trying to bring pressure on various elements --
through violence or war.

	In handling it in this way, it has been estimated that
about 300,000 died while thousands fled overseas. Hundreds of
thousands of others have faced extraordinary external and
internal suffering because they lost their parents, spouses,
children and grandchildren, siblings, and friends, and even
more because of the psychological and physical torture they
have experienced at the hands of the military. In addition, if
we are to be honest, we must acknowledge that the violence or
war has also led to thousands, even tens of thousands of
Indonesia's best soldiers falling in battle; thousands of
others have suffered serious injuries, amputations,
depression, and other difficulties. One consequence is that
it is difficult even to imagine the number of widows, orphans,
and siblings whose fate is hanging on this issue.

	We have no idea when this tragedy will end. But it is
clear that up to this very day, the tragedy is continuing.

	The empirical fact of which the East Timorese, including
ourselves, are acutely aware is that it is impossible for us
to resolve the problem of East Timor through violence or war,
even though this is a question of the small opposing the
large. The reason is that this problem is not one of who is
strong and who is weak but between rights and hegemony; truth
and falsehood; goodness and oppression. Thus it is clear that
because the problem of East Timor is a political problem, it
must be resolved through political means.  And in that
political resolution, like it or not, an approach based on
dialogue plays a determining role.

	Indeed it is true that as a result of the steadily
increasing resistance of the people of East Timor and the
increasingly intensive pressure of the international
community, the Indonesian government has begun over the past
few years to accept the notion that the East Timor conflict
should be resolved through dialogue.  But in the dialogues
undertaken thus far, it turns out that the government of
Indonesia has taken a dishonest stance toward the people of
East Timor. This dishonesty can be seen from the following:

	1. Its refusal to allow the attendance at AIETD [All
Inclusive East Timorese Dialogue]I, II, and III of youth
leaders and others social and political leaders able to
articulate the interests of the East Timorese people and
express the facts as they are. Those who did attend were, for
the most part, officials associated with the provincial
government, who, it turned out, because of their position and
the facilities extended to them by the Indonesian government,
were only able to act as spokespersons for the Indonesian
government in all AIETD forums.

	2. Its ban on any discussion at the AIETD forum of the
essential issue, i.e. the political status of East Timor,
whereas this issue is central, indeed the source of the
conflict in East Timor.

	3. While boasting about this political joke, Indonesia is
creating conditions leading to permanent occupation, without
heeding the complaints and demands of the East Timorese. These
conditions are none other that moving people from other
regions and islands to East Timor (transmigration) so that the
number of transmigrants is estimated to be about 200,000
people.  In addition, it is taking on immigrants from Java,
Sumatra, Sulawesi and elsewhere as officials and civil
servants in the provincial government. The logical consequence
is that at the moment, 90 percent or more of the civil
servants in East Timor are immigrants.

	All of this, in the end, leads us to question again the
statement of President Soeharto that "Indonesia does not have
territorial ambitions" -- with the exception, of course, of
the good intentions and commitment shown by the Indonesian
government in integrating East Timor into the Republic of
Indonesia.

	From these questions, as East Timorese who have never
once betrayed their people and through intensive consultation
with various parties and groups in East Timor, we have agreed
to form a moral and political union to which we have given the
name: Movement for Reconciliation and Union of the People of
East Timor, or GRPRTT for short.

	The primary goals of this movement are:

1. To bring together and make one again the visions,
perceptions, and political actions of the people of East
Timor, who have been split into different group as a result of
the last twenty-two years of war, in order to view and
confront the process of resolving the problem of East Timor.

2. To try to resolve the problem of East Timor through
dialogue involving all parties, especially the government of
Indonesia, in the same capacity.

	For clarification, we are attaching the ACT OF AGREEMENT
regarding the formation of GRPRTT.

	Respectfully,

	THE MOVEMENT FOR THE RECONCILIATION AND UNION OF THE
	PEOPLE OF EAST TIMOR, Drs. Francisco Lopes de Carvalho
	(secretary general) Manuel Viegas Carrascalao (chair)

Copies:
1. Secretary General of the UN in New York
2. President of Portugal
3. President of the United States
4. Pope John Paul II
5. Prime Minister of Australia
6. Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
7. President of South Africa
8. Prime Minister of Canada
9. All heads of state/prime ministers of the European Union countries
10. All heads of state/prime ministers of the Lusophone countries
11. Head of the European Union in Brussels
12. Chair of the Decolonization Committee of the UN
13. Chair of the UN Human Rights Commission
14. President Soeharto
15. Foreign Minister of Indonesia
16. Bishop of the Dili Diocese
17. Bishop of the Baucau Diocese
18. Commander of Korem 164, Dili
19. Head of the Provincial Parliament, Dili


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                       (new page starts here)
	               ACT OF AGREEMENT

We, the youth leaders, public figures, and political leaders
of East Timor who from 1974 until the present have struggled
ceaselessly to bring about peace, democracy, freedom,
independence, progress, and prosperity for the people of East
Timor, are aware of the following facts:

1. That as a colony of Portugal, the people of East Timor
have the right to self-determination based on Article 7 of the
Portuguese Constitution of 1974 on the decolonization of areas
under Portuguese control in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

2. That, with respect to the right of self-determination,
since 1974, political organizations were established and
developed in East Timor, including Fretilin, UDT, APODETI,
KOTA and Trabalhista. Several political alternatives became
the choices of these five political forces in the interests of
exercising the right to self-determination in East Timor:

	1. Full independence, promoted by Fretilin
	2. Federation with Portugal, promoted by UDT, KOTA, and Trabalhista
	3. Integration with Indonesia, promoted by Apodeti.

3. That because of the military intervention of  Indonesia at
the very outset of exercising the right to self-determination
in East Timor, resulting in the eruption of civil war  in East
Timor and the departure of the Portuguese government from the
soil of East Timor in 1975, on the pretext of preventing
further bloodshed, the people of East Timor to this day have
never freely determined their own fate.

4. That aside from never giving the people of East Timor the
possibility to freely determine their own future, the
above-mentioned Indonesian military intervention led Indonesia
to occupy the territory of East Timor up till now while at the
same time claiming that the people of East Timor had exercised
their right to self determination by integrating with the
Republic of Indonesia.

5. That as a people "described as brothers", at the outset
the people of East Timor hope that the presence of the
Indonesian military in the territory of East Timor would
manifest itself as a protective, liberating force as well as a
peaceful intermediary among the warring East Timorese.
History proved otherwise, to the point that the military
presence resulted in the emergence of feelings of nationalism
and critical awareness as well as open resistance of the
people of East Timor to integration with Indonesia. Aside from
this, the Indonesian military presence also prompted a
reaction from the people of Portugal and the international
community under the auspices of the United Nations, rejecting
the Indonesian claim, that is, the integration of East Timor
with Indonesia, and at the same time, demanding that the
people of East Timor be given the opportunity to freely
determine their own fate.

6. That currently, a dialogue is underway among the
interested parties including Indonesia, Portugal and
representatives of the people of East Timor under the auspices
of the Secretary General of the UN with the objective of
finding a resolution that is comprehensive, just, and
internationally acceptable. But it appears that to this day,
this approach has not been able to produce anything
meaningful, while the East Timorese continue to suffer from
pressure exerted by the military.

7. That the configurations of this resolution effort are the
logical consequences of the lack of firmness in the stance of
the UN, the unwillingness of Indonesia to make concessions to
the people of East Timor, and the lack of transparency or
openness of government of Portugal to the people of East
Timor.  8. That besides all this, in reality the most
important factor in the failure of this dialogue approach to
produce concrete and positive results toward the resolution of
the problem of East Timor is the fact that there is no unity
in the vision, perception or political actions of the East
Timorese themselves, especially among the various factions who
have fallen out in confronting the problem of East Timor.  For
this reason, as a manifestation of our spirit of struggle and
nationalist feeling, as a contribution toward the process of
resolving the problem of East Timor, and even more, as a
sincere statement from the depths of our hearts so as not to
bequeath our suffering to East Timorese in the future, we
agree to form a moral and political union, without undermining
the political organizations that currently exist (Fretilin,
UDT, Apodeti, Kota, Trabalhista, CNRM, and so on), which we
will call:

MOVEMENT FOR THE RECONCILIATION AND UNITY OF THE PEOPLE OF
EAST TIMOR or GRPRTT.

	GRPRTT is not a political organization but constitutes a
[spontaneous? word unclear] people's movement born of a
critical awareness and intended to bring together and reunite
all the people of East Timor who have been divided by war,
then to work together to find a resolution to the problem of
East Timor in accordance with the formula that has already
been defined by the UN through dialogue.  Because of this
nature and character, every East Timorese who desires a
settlement of the East Timor problem through dialogue can
become a member of GPRPTT.  So that GPRPTT can realize its
ideals, which are the ideals of all East Timorese, in a good
and productive manner, several individuals who have drafted
this agreement provisionally have been appointed officials and
persons responsible as follows:

1. Chair: Manuel Viegas Carrascalao
2. 	Vice Chair I (representing Apodeti): Ny. Maria Viana do Carmo Quintao
	Vice Chair II (representing Fretilin): Joao Pedro Soares
	Vice Chair III (representing UDT): Leandro Isaac
	Vice Chair IV (representing Trabalhista): Paulo Freitas da Silva
	Vice Chair V (representing Kota): --
	Vice Chair VI (representing youth): Paulo Pereira dos Santos
	Vice Chair VII (representing women): Helen Da C. Quintas M.
	Vice Chair VIII (representing customary leaders and public figures): 
		1. Basilio de Sa Moniz da Silva
		2. Oscar Lucio Goncalves
		3. Inacio Fernandes
3. Secretary-general: Drs. Francisco Lopes de Carvalho
	Secretary I: --
	Secretary II: --
4. Treasurer: Gilman Santos

	To support the activities of GRPRTT, financial support
will be obtained from voluntary contributions of the members
and other donors.

	Other matters not yet arranged in this act of agreement
will be finalized later through consultation among officers
and member in accordance with the nature and urgency and as
the situation demands.

	Dili, 13 October 1997  [signatures of those named above
follow]
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