Filipino people congratulate the East Timor people and condemn attacks on them by Indonesian fascists
National Council
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
5 September 1999 On behalf of the Filipino people, we the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) congratulate the East Timorese people and all their revolutionary forces for national independence for their overwhelming victory in the referendum administered by the United Nations.
We admire the resoluteness and perseverance of the East Timorese people in their revolutionary struggle for national independence. We share their joy in triumphantly asserting and manifesting their sovereign will against the occupation forces of the Indonesian reactionary state.
The Indonesian state must respect the results of the referendum in which almost 80% of the population in East Timor from a voter turnout of more than 97% made clear their choice of independence, despite the campaign of terror unleashed by the Indonesian fascists and their puppets.
Together with the people of the world, we demand that the East Timorese people and democratic forces be unhampered in establishing their own independent state and government and developing their own country in peace.
We condemn the desperate actions of the most reactionary Indonesian officials and military forces, that are the proxies and extensions of the persistent Suharto fascist military dictatorship, to encumber, delay or prevent the East Timorese people from establishing their own independent state and government.
We condemn the massacres, the assassinations, looting and arson being perpetrated by Indonesian fascist army and police troops, masquerading as militia men and combining with a handful of hooligans, against the people and leaders of East Timor. We condemn the imposition of martial law on East Timor at the further expense of the East Timorese people.
It is outrageous that even Catholic Bishop Belo and the clergy and the personnel of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, diplomatic missions and the international press have been targeted for the most vicious physical attacks and have been forced to evacuate. We can never forget how the Indonesian fascist troops invaded East Timor and massacred thousands in 1975.
Thenceforth, they imposed on East Timor the most brutal kind of occupation, oppression and exploitation causing the death of 200,000 or a third of the people of East Timor.
We decry the failure of the UN to promptly adopt and implement effective measures to ensure the safety of the East Timorese people and give due course to their sovereign will and independence. The imperialist powers could use their financial leverage to compel the resignation of the fascist dictator Suharto and direct a so-called transition to �democracy� in order to cover up their responsibility for the plunder of Indonesia.
But in the case of East Timor, they give free rein to the fascists in prolonging their occupation of East Timor and flagrantly committing the most dastardly crimes against the people.
The imperialist powers can at will use the name of the UN to attack or occupy sovereign states like Iraq and Yugoslavia. But they are deliberately slow in compelling their puppet state in Indonesia to respect the results of the referendum.
The imperialist powers headed by the US are obviously balancing their larger economic and political interests in Indonesia against the national sovereignty of East Timor and are trying to extract advantages from both Indonesia and East Timor even if in the meantime the East Timorese people are being massacred, robbed and forced to evacuate.
We condemn any scheme to make East Timor a client state of the imperialist powers and the neighboring state of Indonesia. As always, we support the East Timorese people in their struggle for national liberation and democracy.
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