atholic protest at Suharto visit

The State visit to Britain of President Suharto of Indonesia went ahead this week despite strong protests against it because of his government's repressive policies in East Timor.
Reliable estimates say that about 150,000 people — almost a quarter of the population — have (lied in East Timor following the Indonesian invasion in 1975 and that the situation is deteriorating.
The protestors included the Catholic Institute for International Relations, which said in a letter to Lord Carrington last week that recent reports indicated that "the scale of suffering in East Timor is potentially as serious as the tragedy of Cambodia." The letter quoted the regional director of Catholic Relief Services as saying that the intensity of the problem was "greater than anything I have seen in 14 years of relief work in Asia," It continued: "Tragically this break-through of Indonesia's barrier of silence and the mounting of a massive relief operation will, it is reported, be too late to save the hundreds, possibly thousands, of East Timorese whose death from malnutrition and starvation seems ines itable."
It called on the Foreign Secretary to bring CIIR's "deep concern" to President Suharto's attention during the visit.