Eurico and his spokesman, Hukman Reni said here Wednesday the event was packed with people attending the inauguration of the East Union Aswain (Untas) or Association of Timorese committee in West Papua.
In West Papua province, there are many people of former East Timor, including those in Manokwari, Sorong, Fakfak, Kaimana, Teluk Wondama, Bintuni and other areas. While in Papua province, many Timorese community of former East Timor are found in Timika, Jayapura and Sentani (Jayapura district) with a total of more than 2,000 people, Hukman explained.
The Timorese of former East Timoe living in various areas in Papua, felt like a lost parent of chicks, so they longed for a special meeting. The people then contacted by the Untas board, chaired by Eurico to appoint the board of West Papua in Manokwari at the end of this month, he added.
He said, Untas is an organization that oversees all the people of ex-East Timor in Indonesia, following a poll which was won by East Timorese independence supporters which now became East Timor state.
Meanwhile, the East Timorese people who declared themselves loyal to Indonesia, then settled in various regions, with the largest concentration in the western part of Timor, East Nusa Tenggara province (NTT).
To protect all the people of ex-East Timor in Indonesia, then a few moments after the announcement of the 1999 polls, a number of ex-East Timorese leaders set up Untas in Kupang which had been delayed for seven years, therefore many Timorese of former East Timor faced difficulty to convert their aspirations to the Indonesian government.
Fortunately, during the stagnant time, a number of ex-East Timorese leaders formed an organization called the National Committee of Political East Timor Victims(Kokpit), Hukman Reni said.
The result of the cockpit struggles was that all the Timorese outside the territory of NTT obtained termination funds from the government amounting to Rp5 million in 2009.
After Eurico Guterres became chairman of Untas in 2010, he began to consolidate the organization that protected the people of former East Timor in various regions in Indonesia, among others, by forming a committee in each region including Manokwari, West Papua to be a forum of communications of all the Timorese of former East Timor.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
