PRD/PST
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 16:37:53 +1100
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Comrades

It would be appreciated if you can publicise this exciting opportunity to 
hear the latest developments for the movement in both Indonesia and East Timor.

We can also provide a sample advertisement for your journal if you prefer.

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

Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) is honoured to 
be able to tour these prominent campaigners for freedom and justice and we 
invite you to support and attend the public meetings in your city (see 
below for the details). Please see the short biographies below give you an 
idea of the campaigns Budiman and Avelino are currently involved in.

We would like to take this opportunity to appeal to you to support the tour 
by making a financial donation to go 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, 
please 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.

Who 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.

For more information contact: ASIET on [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tel: (02) 9690 1230 or Fax: (02) 9690 1381

Web: http://www.asiet.org.au

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: 3254 0565; 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=20

Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET)
PO Box 458
Broadway NSW 2007
Australia
Tel: 61 (0)2 9690 1032
Fax: 61 (0)2 9690 1381
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.asiet.org.au/


LL.VD LL.ND LL.QD LL.WD LL.AD LL.SD LL.TD

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