[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 116 (Thursday, September 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H8082-H8083]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                                 URGENT

  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, our colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Hall), nominated Bishop Belo for the Nobel peace prize; and shortly 
thereafter, I visited East Timor about 2 years ago. I want to read a 
fax that I just received in my office about East Timor. The man said 
this is a deliberate, carefully planned operation. The militia are not 
out of control. They are, in fact, firmly under the control of the 
Indonesian military. East Timor is an Asian Kosovo. Asian Kosovo; and 
then he goes on to say that a gentle 80-year-old nun who helped work 
for Bishop Belo has been shot. Bishop Belo's home has been burned down. 
Bishop Belo has fled the country. And he ends by saying the neck of a 
3-year-old child was wrung while his family watched.
  This administration has to speak out and deal with this issue, and 
they have to speak out and deal with this issue before the end of the 
day.

                                 Urgent

                                                September 9, 1999.
     Congressman Frank Wolf,
     241 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Wolf: I'm aware of your interest in the 
     people of East Timor and am contacting you because I believe 
     you may not have heard of the massacre at Suai. Details of 
     this event follow later in this message.
       The East Timorese desperately need outside help and the 
     support of democratic nations, in particular the USA. No less 
     than 78.5% of East Timorese voted for independence from 
     Indonesia. Since then, Indonesia has subjected them to a 
     terrible revenge. Militia and Indonesian military have been 
     burning, shooting and looting their way through East Timor 
     for days.
       The latest estimate (given tonight by the Australian 
     Defense Minister) is that 200,000

[[Page H8083]]

     East Timorese have been forcibly evacuated to West Timor and 
     elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago. There is a 
     systematic programme of destruction and genocide taking 
     place--designed to wipe out the East Timorese elite and raze 
     the infrastructure of East Timor to the ground.
       This is a deliberate and carefully planned operation--the 
     militia are not `out of control', they are in fact firmly 
     under control of the Indonesian military. East Timor is an 
     Asian Kosovo: Indonesian-backed militia and Indonesian police 
     and military are causing terror in East Timor even as you 
     read this message. A gentle 80-year-old nun who helped care 
     for Bishop Belo has been shot, Bishop Belo has fled the 
     country, and there are numerous accounts of children and 
     young men being hacked to death. The neck of a three-year-old 
     child was wrung while his family watched.
       I'm writing to you as an Australian citizen who is outraged 
     at these events and who cannot believe that the world, and 
     the US in particular, will do nothing to stop this holocaust. 
     There is a desperate, urgent need for immediate outside help 
     for the Timorese, a gentle Christian people, who believed 
     that the world would stand by them.
       Australia has committed 4,500 troops for a peacekeeping 
     force but has so far failed to get any support from the US. 
     There is a great sense of sadness, anger and frustration here 
     about this. And I must tell you that there is great 
     disappointment at the lack of US interest.
       Australia has always stood by the side of the United States 
     whenever the US has asked for support--in Korea, Vietnam and 
     the Gulf War. This is the first time in more than 50 years 
     that we have asked for US help and we are getting nowhere. 
     Our troops are on standby in Darwin and by coincidence there 
     is a substantial number of US troops and several US warships 
     also in Northern Australia. My guess is that a significant 
     show of force and commitment by the US would turn the tide.
       Please, Congressman, so what you can to help. Ask your 
     colleagues and President Clinton to take a stand for 
     democracy and against the evil, malevolent forces at work in 
     East Timor today.
           Yours sincerely,
                                                        Ian Evans.
       The following information is from the web site of the 
     Australian Broadcasting Corporation and was telecast on ABC-
     TV tonight (7:00 pm AEST, 9/9/99)

                      UN Confirms Massacre at Suai

       The United Nations has confirmed a massacre in which 
     approximately 100 supporters of independence were shot or 
     hacked to death by rampaging pro-Jakarta militia members 
     earlier this week.
       The victims were among more than 2,000 terrified people who 
     had taken refuge from the militia for some weeks in a church 
     in the western town of Suai. Three priests are believed to 
     have been among those killed during the militia attack on 
     Tuesday. The East Timorese head of the Catholic aid agency 
     Caritas, Father Francisco Barreto, is also believed to have 
     been killed.
       In other reports, six nuns from the Canossian order were 
     reportedly killed in the city of Baucau, 115 kilometers east 
     of Dili.
       A spokeswoman for Caritas in Australia said priests have 
     been identified as supporting independence because pro-
     independence supporters had begun seeking shelter in church 
     buildings in the past months.

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