Human Chain for East Timor on the Internet

Cordão Humano na Internet para acompanhar de perto, divulgar e apoiar as iniciativas por TIMOR.

10 de Setembro de 1999

Hi,

I am a member of the group timor-portugal and would like to tell YOU you are most welcome. I don't know exactly where you are from, but you can certainly help us a lot with spreading the word for Timor Loro Sae (that's the new name for the independent East Timor and it it means "Timor of the Rising Sun").

Basically what we most do, or at least try to do, is reach as many people as we can all over the world - especially those who have the power - protesting about the situation in Timor Loro Sae. As you probably know, after a ballot in which the East Timorese voted for their independence from Indonesia (78,5% pro-independence) the Indonesian Army, together with militias armed by the army itself, began slaughtering and deporting people, and destroying cities and villages; the city of Dili, the capital, is completely burnt down.

The media have shown all that ( I repeat, I don't know where you are from) but not enough people seem to care.

The Timorese are poor; Indonesia is much more important, economically and strategically, for the all-powerful five countries which form the Security Counsel in the UN, and the so called western civilized world.

Jakarta said they would accept a Peace Keeping Force in Timor, but they cannot be trusted. News have reached the media that they keep killing and destroying, perhaps to permanently shut up the voices of those that could later testify against them.

So what you can do, and I am speaking for myself, though believing that I can say this in the name of all the members in this group, is this:

- Write protest letters to anyone you think can do something, lik