Indonesia Human Rights Committee,
June 26, 2005

Media Release: Visit of Avelino da Silva : former resistance activist and leader of the Socialist Party of East Timor

Avelino da Silva joined FRETILIN as a youth activist. During the 80s and 90s, he helped found progressive East Timorese youth groups in East Timor and Indonesia. He helped build an underground resistance in Java in the 1990s and was hunted by the Suharto regime, eventually seeking sanctuary for almost two years in the Austrian Embassy. He was the first general secretary of the Socialist Party (PST) when it was founded in the mid-1990s.
In the recent local elections PST made significant gains. The party has one Member of Parliament.

Avelino is also chairman of ComeAlright Foundation, an NGO which provides services and legal assistance to workers, farmers and unemployed people.

Avelino will offer insights into the situation of ordinary people five years after liberation and his perspective on recent political developments in Timor Leste. He will discuss the prospects for justice and accountability for the grave crimes against humanity committed in East Timor during the Indonesian occupation. He will also address issues of development and reconstruction, and the state of play with oil deal with Australia.

Avelino will be in Auckland July 3-4 and July 7. He will speak at two public meetings in Auckland:

Sunday 3rd July, 2005, 2 pm St Benedicts Church Crypt 1 St Benedicts Church Newton

Mon 4 July 2005, 7-30 pm Global Peace and Justice Forum (joint speaker with author David Robie)

Avelino is available for interview:

ENDS

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