East Timor resistance wins moral victory

BY BERNADETTE MEADEN ANL} JOE JENKINS
TiE 1996 NOM!. peace prize has been awarded to Bishop Carlos Belo of Dili, East Timor, and Jose RamosHorta, UN representative of the East Timorese people.
Jose Ramos-Horta, 51, was a very youthful Foreign Minister when Indonesian forces annexed the country in 1975. Since then, approximately 200,000 people have been killed, about one third of the population, and thousands have fled the barrage of aerial assaults and massacres perpetuated by the Muslim Indonesian regime on the largely Catholic Timorese population.
Living in exile, Mr RamosHotta has campaigned tirelessly around the world for a just peace in East Timor, Bishop Belo, 48, has been described as a quiet and retiring man, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee said: "At the risk of his own life, he has tried to protect his people from infringements by those in power."
Both men were characteristically modest in their reactions to the award.
Bishop Belo said "The prize represents the very hard work we still have to do."
Mr Ramos-Horta said that the Bishop and the Catholic Church had done so much for the people of East Timor, but he felt that Xanada Gusrnao, the jailed resistance leader, should have shared the award with the Bishop.
The UN has passed 11 resolutions ordering Indonesia to withdraw from East Timor, but Western powers have done little to help. Britain is Indonesia's biggest supplier of arms.
Last July, Mr Ramos-Horta was in Liverpool to give evidence at the trial of four women who disarmed a British Aerospace Hawk jet, one of 24 due to be delivered to Indonesia.
The women argued that they had acted to prevent a crime being committed, as by supplying the planes, British Aerospace and the british Government were aiding and abetting genocide in East Timor.
After hearing all of the evidence, the jury accepted the women's argument and they were acquired of all charges.
One of the women, Andrea Needham, who is Catholic, said "This is wonderful news, but it is very embarrassing for the British Government.
"'This is clear international condemnation of the Indonesian genocide is East Timor, and the British Government should he joining in that condemnation, not supplying weapons."
On Monday, Bishop Belo shook hands cooly with President Suhario, who was in Dili to unveil an imposing statue of Christ built by the Indonesian Government.
The East Timorese see the statue as an ironic and insulting monument to their persecution, hut Bishop Belo characteristically accepted the statue in good faith.