DC Press Conference on E Timor & Indonesia

MEDIA ADVISORY

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE ON U.S. POLICY TOWARD INDONESIA AND EAST TIMOR

WHO:
Jose Ramos-Horta,* Nobel Laureate and Vice-President, National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), East Timor;
Rep. Joseph Crowley* (D-NY);
Rep. Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS);
Rep. Tony Hall* (D-OH);
Rep. James McGovern* (D-MA);
Rep. Patrick Kennedy* (D-RI);
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH);
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY);
Senator Jack Reed* (D-RI);
Rep. Chris Smith* (R-NJ);
Machyar M. Kumbang, Acehnese Human Rights Advocate;
T. Kumar, Advocacy Director for Asia and the Pacific, Amnesty International USA;
Lynn Fredriksson, Washington Representative, East Timor Action Network;
Panos Moumtzis, Senior Public Information Officer, UNHCR;
Jana Mason, Policy Analyst/Congressional Liaison, U.S. Committee for Refugees; *invited

WHEN: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 11:00 AM

WHERE: House Triangle (Rain Room: 1640 Longworth)

CONTACT: Karen Orenstein, East Timor Action Network, 202-544-6911 Members of Congress will join Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta (invited) and human rights advocates in a press conference, Tuesday, September 19 at 11 AM, on current U.S. policy toward Indonesia and East Timor.

The press conference will cover Congressional and other efforts to address the following:

§ the brutal murder of three staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) working in East Timorese refugee camps in West Timor in early September. Rampaging militias reportedly supported by the Indonesian military killed the three UNHCR workers, including U.S. citizen Carlos Caceres, and an unknown number of East Timorese refugees and West Timorese;

§ Secretary of Defense William Cohen's visit to Indonesia;

§ calls by Members of Congress and human rights advocates for the Administration to maintain the renewed full suspension of U.S. assistance to the Indonesian military and police, including the sale of any spare parts, until the Indonesian military is clearly under civilian control, and military backed militia violence in West Timor has ceased.

§ efforts to bring those responsible for human rights violations and atrocities in Indonesia and East Timor to justice through an international tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indonesia's attorney general recently released a limited list of suspects in last year's East Timor violence -- which excluded almost all high-level military and militia leaders.

§ the murder of human rights lawyer and U.S. resident Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, who has testified before the U.S. Congress on human rights violations in Aceh. A prominent critic of human rights violations in Aceh, Jafar was kidnapped without a trace on August 5 in broad daylight in Medan. His badly tortured body was found with four others outside of Medan on September 3; official investigations into his death have gone nowhere.

The East Timor Action Network/ U.S. (ETAN) was founded in November 1991 to support East Timorese self-determination. ETAN supports human rights in Indonesia and works for a peaceful transition to independence in East Timor. It has 28 local chapters throughout the U.S. For additional background see www.etan.org.

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John M. Miller Internet: john@etan.org
Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network
48 Duffield St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097
Mobile: (917)690-4391
Web site: http://www.etan.org

Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out how to learn
more about East Timor on the Internet
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