A global boycott of trade with Indonesia has been called for in Dublin by a leader of the East Timorese resistance.
Mr Joao Viegas Carrascalao said that he had chosen to make the announcement in Dublin because of Ireland's record of support for the East Timor cause. Today he meets the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews.
The normally cautious Mr Carrascalao also attacked for the first time the role of the UN special envoy to East Timor, Dr Jamsheed Marker. The former Pakistani diplomat "always compromises with Indonesia," he said. The UN was turning a "blind eye" to the recent massacres, and calls for peacekeeping troops.
And further taking the resistance's diplomatic gloves off the president of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) said that both Mr Ali Alatas, Indonesia's Foreign Minister, and the army chief, Gen Wiranto, were "liars". They were only pretending to negotiate a deal allowing for independence.
Under the boycott call he included an appeal to trade unions to deny services to Indonesian embassies. He also called on academics to halt teaching "the children of Indonesian generals", particularly in the US and Australia.
Mr Carrascalao (54) said the resistance felt forced to overcome its reluctance to call for such a boycott because of the effect it might have on poor Indonesians, including those in sweat shops making sports wear for Western markets. But "unfortunately they will have to suffer the consequences of Indonesian policies."
Dr Marker was the main diplomatic advocate of Indonesia's autonomy proposal, he said. "Every time I meet him he goes out of his head, raising his voice to get me to accept autonomy," an option seen by the resistance as continuing the illegal Indonesian occupation.