Woman `adopted' political prisoner

An 86-year-old Quaker came face to face for the first time in Dublin yesterday with her "adopted grandson", an East Timorese political prisoner to whom she wrote during his six-year incarceration in an Indonesian jail.

Ms Nancy Bevin, from St Ishmels in Wales, said she was overjoyed to see Mr Juvencio Martins (38) alive and well after his ordeal. "I never thought that I would ever meet him," she said.

The two embraced emotionally after she disembarked from a coach at Busarus, Mr Martins declaring it "a dream come true."

"During my imprisonment I felt really neglected and isolated. Her letters were like an oasis in the desert. They helped me get through the long nights and years," he said.

A pro-democracy activist, Mr Martins was imprisoned for helping to organise a peaceful protest against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor in November 1991 at the Santa Cruz cemetery in the territory's capital, Dili. At least 270 demonstrators were killed when Indonesian troops opened fire on the crowd.

Sentenced to six years and 10 months in jail, Mr Martins was categorised a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International.

Ms Bevin learnt of his case through a Quaker prisoner-befriending group and wrote to him regularly, sometimes sending books and money which he used to smuggle letters out. They addressed each other as "grandmother" and "grandson" in their correspondence which continued up to Mr Martins's release in August 1997.

He then fled to the United States because of persecution by the Indonesian military.

Yesterday he expressed his gratitude to the Irish Embassy in Washington for granting him a visa to visit Ireland in order to meet Ms Bevin. Britain had previously refused to allow him travel to Wales.