National speaking tour April 10-17, 2000 Unfinished struggles for freedom in Indonesia and East Timor Budiman Sujatmiko, Chairperson of the Indonesian People's Democratic Party (PRD) and Avelino da Silva, General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Timor March 28, 2000 Dear friends, Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) is honoured to be able to tour these prominent campaigners for freedom and justice. We invite you to support and attend the important public meetings which are taking place in every capital city (see below for the details). The short biographies below give you an idea of the campaigns Budiman and Avelino are currently involved in. Please publicise this exciting opportunity to hear the latest developments of the movement in both Indonesia and East Timor. Forward this email to your own email list, publicise it at your place of work or study, and most importantly, come along with your friends to these unique and informative public meetings. In solidarity, Pip Hinman Acting national coordinator of ASIET _____________________________________ Public Meetings: Adelaide: April 16, 3pm Nexus Multicultural Centre, corner North Tce and Morphett St, Adelaide. Ph: 8231 6982; 0419 756 561 Brisbane: April 11, 7pm Trades and Labor Council Building; 2nd floor, 16 Peel St, South Brisbane. Ph: 3846 4148; 0417 747 109 Canberra: April 13, 6.30pm Manning Clarke, Theatre 3, ANU. Ph: 6247 2424 Darwin: April 10, 7.30pm Mal Nairn Auditorium, Northern Territory University. Ph: 8981 4714; 0413 730 065 Hobart: April 15, 3pm Resistance Centre, 225 Murray St, Hobart. Ph: 6234 6397; 0413 976 638 Melbourne: April 14, 7pm Public Lecture Theatre (PLT) Melbourne University, Parkville. Ph: 9639 8622; 0413 257 660 Perth: April 17, 7pm Lotteries House Conference Room, 2 Delhi St, West Perth. Ph: 9227 7367 Sydney: April 12, 6.30pm Trades Hall Auditorium, Goulburn St, Sydney. Ph: 9690 1032; 9690 1230 For more information, contact Pip Hinman on (02) 9690 1230, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] or check our web site on www.asiet.org.au _____________________________________ Budiman Sujatmiko Chairperson of the People's Democratic Party Budiman Sujatmiko, the national chairperson of the People's Democratic Party, will tour Australia in April. This will be his first international tour since being released from prison last December. His party, the most outspoken critic of the former regimes of Suharto and Habibie, is now gaining a reputation for being the voice of the Indonesian people, as it campaigns against the IMF-driven economic restructuring program about to be implemented by the so-called reformist Wahid-Megawati government. Budiman Sujamiko joined the student movement in 1988 while studying economics at Yogjakarta University of Gadja Mada. That same year, he decided to join the peasant movement and went back to his home town to organise small farmers to resist attempts by the Shell-owned company Olephine to take over their land. In 1994, Budiman was one of the founding members of the Indonesian People's Democratic Party, set up by student activists to link up with and provide assistance to the growing mass protests against Suharto's dictatorial regime. At the time the PRD organised many mass actions through workers, students and small farmers committees. In 1996, the PRD became the first political party to openly declare its opposition to the Suharto regime. For these activities, Budiman was arrested in 1996 and charged under the anti-subversion law. In 1997, he was tried and sentenced to 13 years' jail. During his court room appearance, Budiman used to opportunity to condemn the Suharto regime for its corruption, nepotism and cronyism and violence against the people. His court room speech, in front of Suharto's crony judges and military, was broadcast around the world. Budiman believes that if the student movement hadn't overthrown Suharto in May 1998, and a worldwide campaign for his release hadn't been launched (he became one of the Amnesty International's prisoner's of conscience), he may still be in prison today. The Gus Dur-Megawati government released Budiman and other political prisoners last December. Today, Budiman is a prominent spokesperson for the People's Democratic Party, and receives regular press and TV coverage inside Indonesia for the party's campaign against the government's decision to cut subsides to fuel and electricity. The party still faces harassment and threats from police and military at every public action they organise. But they are used to this having been the most consistent campaigners alongside the East Timorese students demanding Jakarta's withdrawal from East Timor; and for real democracy inside Indonesia. Today the PRD is campaigning that the Wahid government solve the country's economic problems in a different way: The PRD argues that the government: cancel the foreign debt; refuse to rescue insolvent banks, nationalise Suharto and his cronies' assets at home and abroad (Time magazine estimated Suharto's assets to be worth US$16 billion), nationalise the military's enterprises; reduce the military budget (which is larger than the education, social welfare, agriculture and forestry budgets); clean up corruption and state-owned enterprises and the bureaucracy and put all corrupt officials on trial. The PRD are also campaigning for an international war crimes tribunal to be set up to bring the generals responsible for the violence and mayhem in East Timor to be bought to justice. They also want Suharto to be put on trial, and an investigation opened into the 1965-66 government-sponsored massacre of at least 1 million leftists and activists from the Communist Party of Indonesia. ______________________________ Avelino da Silva Secretary General of Socialist Party of Timor Avelino da Silva, 39, is secretary general of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST). At the time of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975, Avelino and his family were members of Fretilin and active in the campaign to end Portuguese colonial rule. Along with thousands of other East Timorese, he fled to the mountains to continue the struggle for independence. Avelino was strongly influenced by the leftist radicals within Fretilin. In 1981, he was involved in the formation of OJETIL, which set itself up as a Marxist youth organisation. During the 1980's Avelino worked for the Resistance in the mountains and towns of East Timor. Along with other activists within Fretilin, Avelino continued to identify with socialist politics. This grouping formed the Timorese Socialist Association, which later became the PST. In 1989, he left East Timor for Java to strengthen the campaign for independence among the sizeable number of East Timorese workers and students living there. While in Java, Avelino established close links with the radical Indonesian students and labour activists campaigning against the Suharto dictatorship. In 1993, Avelino assisted Constancio Pinto, the head of the clandestine front (the East Timorese underground network), to escape from Indonesia. In 1995, Xanana Gusmao assigned Avelino (alias Shalar Kossi) the task of undertaking specialist military activities with Falintil, which included the formation of the ``Brigada Negra'' special forces in 1997. He was hounded by the Indonesian military and security personnel which led to him, his wife, his two young daughters and three other East Timorese activists to seek sanctuary in the Austrian embassy in September 1997. The Indonesian authorities accused Avelino of undertaking ``terrorist activities'' and demanded he be handed over. He and his family remained in the embassy until April 1999. In June 1999, he was a participant in the Dare II reconciliation meeting held in Jakarta, after which he returned to East Timor to campaign in the lead-up to the August 30 referendum. After the August 30 ballot result was announced on September 5, Avelino was forced to flee the militia and Indonesian military rampage in Dili, spending three anxious weeks with tens of thousands of East Timorese near the town of Dare. In October, Avelino was appointed by Xanana to the Transitional Council, the peak body representing the East Timorese during the United Nations transitional period. The Transitional Council has been incorporated into the National Consultative Council, the advisory body for UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor). In recent months, Avelino has also been active in building the PST and its related organisations including the labour organisation, Alliance of Socialist Workers, which on January 5 staged the first worker demonstration in Dili since Indonesian occupation ended. The protest demanded an increase in wages for East Timorese workers and the lowering of prices on food and other basic commodities. Avelino has also been outspoken about the slow pace of reconstruction aid, and is campaigning for an improvement in the distribution of food, medicine and other vital aid. The PST has also restarted a number of rural-based cooperatives including in Aileu, Emera and Liquica, Manatuto, Ossu, and have embarked on an ambitious project of teaching English and Tetum literacy. Hundreds of people have been attending these classes. _______________________________ What is ASIET? ASIET, an aid and solidarity organisation, was established in the early 1990s to support the radical democratic forces in Indonesia and East Timor. ASIET aims to publicise the struggles undertaken by the Indonesian People's Democratic Party (PRD) and related worker, student and small farmer organisations, and similarly with the Socialist Party of Timor and related worker, student and small farmer organisations. We aim to raise awareness here about our neighbours' struggles for justice against the IMF austerity push, and seek to place maximum pressure on the Australian government to adopt a pro-people foreign policy. We publish regular newsletters, a weekly NetNews Digest and a quarterly magazine Indonesia-East Timor Watch. Please support the tour of Budiman and Avelino by making a donation towards meeting the tour costs. Any additional monies raised (apart from the tour costs) will be forwarded to the People's Democratic Party and the Socialist Party of Timor. You can send your donation to: ASIET, PO Box 458, Broadway 2007 NSW or address cheques or money orders to ``ASIET (national tour)'' Commonwealth Bank, Broadway Branch, NSW, Account number: 2003-1002-3247. For more information contact: Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) PO Box 458 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia Tel: 61 (0)2 9690 1230 Fax: 61 (0)2 9690 1381 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.asiet.org.au/ __________________________________ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
