c. 1997 Religion News Service

BERKELEY, Calif. _ Jose Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his work as an East Timor independence activist, says he is encouraged after recent high-level meetings with Clinton administration officials that U.S. policy toward East Timor may be shifting.

Ramos-Horta, who shared the coveted prize with Timorese Bishop Carlos Belo, has been stumping the United States seeking international support for a referendum on Timorese independence and an international fact-finding mission _ backed by the United Nations, a group of Nobel laureates and”independent experts”_ to report on the situation in East Timor.

The Nobel laureate fled East Timor shortly after the Indonesian invasion and now teaches law at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1975, just before its former colonizer, Portugal, was to grant independence to the tiny island, situated between New Guinea, Borneo and Indonesia.

Since then, religious and human rights organizations say they believe 200,000 Timorese have lost their lives as a result of brutal efforts by Indonesian forces to repress the independence movement.

In an address at the University of California at Berkeley, Ramos-Horta said East Timor had long been a”footnote”in the pageant of global politics.

But he credited his winning the Nobel Peace Prize for what he called the”warm”reception he received at the State Department Feb. 26, when he became the first Timorese independence activist to hold formal meetings with U.S. government officials since the Indonesian occupation.

Ramos-Horta offered few details on the substance of his discussions with Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck and Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Tim Wirth. But he said the Clinton administration has shown itself more willing than any other recent U.S. administration to support a referendum on independence for East Timor.”We are very grateful to President Clinton and the Clinton administration for the modest steps they have taken,”Ramos-Horta said.

The administration has”most consistently raised the issue (of human rights abuses by the Indonesian occupation forces) with Indonesia at the highest level,”he said.

However, Ramos-Horta said the administration needs to go further to oppose arms sales to the Indonesian government, sales that he said are being used in the repression of his homeland.

Clinton suspended a planned sale of F-16 fighter jets to Indonesia, in part amid criticism he sustained after an election-year tempest over the Democratic Party’s acceptance of campaign funds from a wealthy Indonesian family. It is not clear, he said, whether the move means arms sales to Indonesia one day may be resumed.

Ramos-Horta also said the United States must come out more squarely in support of East Timorese independence before the United Nations.”I appeal to the United States to support the holding of a referendum,”Ramos-Horta said to applause from the audience, an international mix that included at least two Indonesian government officials who rose to raise objections to Ramos-Horta’s remarks during a question-and-answer period.

Ramos-Horta also praised several Democratic lawmakers _ including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Rep. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., _ for pressing the referendum issue in Congress.”If the Clinton administration has taken some positive steps, it is thanks to the courage and integrity of these lawmakers,”Ramos-Horta said.

In a speech alternating between laconic wit and passionate denunciation of the disappearances, jailings, tortures and murders of opponents of Indonesian rule, Ramos-Horta said Indonesia’s claim to East Timor is little more than”land gobbling.” He also slammed Indonesian claims that its occupation was”invited by the people of East Timor,”comparing the claims to defenses for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1983.

Ramos-Horta said the human toll of the Timorese invasion has been enormous.”Two hundred thousand people at least have died,”he said.”Entire villages have disappeared.”Thousands have been tortured in prison, he said.”You can see it in their body, their scars _ if you cannot see it in their minds, in their souls.” He spoke of one activist who was ordered imprisoned for eight years because he had faxed information on the human rights situation in East Timor to Amnesty International.

He also called it”outrageous”that intellectuals and academics could justify the Indonesian occupation of East Timor on the grounds it had led to the development of badly needed highways and other public works projects.

Ramos-Horta said he was”shocked”when he got word that the Swedish Academy had awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize, saying other peace activists, such as former President Jimmy Carter, were more worthy of the prize.

However, Ramos-Horta said he had no doubt that Bishop Belo, his co-winner, was deserving of the honor.

The church in East Timor _”a church abandoned even by the Vatican,”he said _ was active in resisting Indonesian rule and denouncing human rights violations by the occupiers at a time”when the world was turning a blind eye.” MJP END AQUINO