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Indonesia's Suharto snubs Nobel winner
October 15, 1996
Web posted at: 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT)In this story:
- Christ statue erected
- Suharto defender: Critics 'exaggerate'
- Economic development
- Death threats on the Internet
- Related stories
DILI, Indonesia (CNN) -- President Suharto snubbed Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Carlos Belo on Tuesday during a brief visit to troubled East Timor province. The Indonesian leader twice shook hands with the Roman Catholic bishop during a public function but made no mention of the prize announced last week.
Both Bishop Belo and fellow 1996 Nobel winner Jose Ramos-Horta are major critics of Indonesia's military occupation of East Timor. The region was invaded in 1975 during a civil war sparked by the hasty withdrawal of Portuguese colonial authorities.
A year later, Indonesia annexed East Timor, a move the United Nations has not recognized, and left behind a heavy military presence. Up to 260,000 people died in the first five years of Indonesian rule of East Timor.
Belo and Ramos-Horta were jointly awarded the peace prize for their role "towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict" in the territory.
Christ statue erected
Suharto was in East Timor to inaugurate a giant marble statue of Jesus as a symbol of religious tolerance in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population. By contrast, East Timor is 90 percent Christian.
Suharto and Belo sat side-by-side during a helicopter ride to allow Suharto to view the 90-foot (27-meter) statue, erected on a headland overlooking Dili bay. But Belo later told reporters he and the president discussed neither the Nobel award nor East Timor's political future during the 20-minute ride.
He said Suharto asked him about the church and his work among the youth in East Timor.
Although the Nobel committee's naming of the two East Timorese infuriated Indonesian officials, Armed Forces commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung offered his congratulations to Belo at Tuesday's ceremony. He was the only member of Suharto's government to do so.
Suharto defender: Critics 'exaggerate'
Despite the president's snub, the visit to East Timor -- Suharto's third since 1976 -- is a sign of the importance he places on the province, says Salvador Soares, an East Timorese member of Indonesia's parliament.
Soares disagrees with the Nobel laureates and other Suharto critics who charge East Timor was forcefully integrated into Indonesia. "That is very, very wrong," he says. "The majority of East Timorese want integration, but the Western press and foreign human rights groups exaggerate reports of the anti-integration movement."
Soares acknowledges human rights abuses are a legitimate concern in East Timor, "but that is not government policy," he insists. "Those responsible have been tried and punished."
"People still talk about these incidents after they have been resolved, so it's not justice they are looking for. It has become politicized."
Economic development
What is important, Soares says, is the development offered by the central government. Since 1976, Indonesia has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into East Timor to build schools and badly needed infrastructure.
While in the province, Suharto also inaugurated five public works projects covering highway, road and irrigation construction worth some $39 million.
Death threats on the Internet
Ramos-Horta, who lives in self-imposed exile in Australia and works for the civilian wing of East Timor's Fretilin pro-independence guerrilla movement, described the president's visit to the province as "unnecessary provocation." He said the statue was "an affront to the East Timorese people ... and a joke in poor taste."
The Nobel laureate said Tuesday he had received several death threats on the Internet designed to scare him into ending his pro-independence campaign for East Timor.
Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- East Timor democracy leaders named Nobel Peace Prize winners - October 11, 1996
- Peace deal reached to end Muslim revolt in Philippines - August 30, 1996
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