Pope sends Vatican envoy to East Timor

c. 1996 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS)-In an apparent attempt to find a diplomatic solution to Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor, Pope John Paul II on Tuesday (Feb. 20) dispatched a top Vatican envoy to the province and to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to meet with government and religious leaders. The mission of […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS)-In an apparent attempt to find a diplomatic solution to Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor, Pope John Paul II on Tuesday (Feb. 20) dispatched a top Vatican envoy to the province and to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to meet with government and religious leaders.

The mission of Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, one of the pope’s most trusted advisers, comes as the pontiff has stepped up his efforts at prodding Indonesia to relax, if not cede, control of the former Portuguese colony that it invaded in 1975 and formally annexed in 1976.


Indonesia, with a population of more than 191 million-the world’s fourth largest nation-is overwhelmingly Muslim. Some 676,000 of East Timor’s population of 800,000 are Roman Catholic.

Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, a native of East Timor and an ardent foe of annexation, has been an outspoken critic of the Indonesian government of President Suharto and has long called attention to alleged human rights abuses committed by the government against Timorese separatists.

Western human rights groups such as Amnesty International have also criticized the Suharto government, alleging repression of civil liberties and a crackdown on Timorese human rights activists.

On Monday, the pope said East Timor”continued to wait for serious proposals which would permit the realization of their legitimate aspirations to see their specific culture and religion recognized.”Every party involved should give its just support to promote and support the dialogue already under way,”he added.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have never recognized Indonesia’s takeover of the province, in which an estimated 210,000 East Timorese have been killed.

The pope became the first world leader to visit East Timor after its invasion. His 1975 visit was followed by a second trip in 1989, when he prayed on a field in the city of Dili, the Timorese capital, where Indonesian troops had killed tens of thousands of Timorese.

MJP END HEILBRONNER

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