Indonesian troops broke up a protest by more than 1,500 East Timorese demanding self-determination for the former Portuguese colony. Troops moved in to end the demonstration at the foreign ministry in Jakarta as 12 political prisoners left an East Timor jail under presidential amnesty.Some 1,000 troops and police charged into the protesters in the ministry compound who were wearing black headbands bearing the slogan `referendum'. Whacking protesters with rattan sticks, the soldiers quickly herded them into about 16 buses waiting nearby.Some protesters hurled objects, including bottles and shoes, at the soldiers. One protester was seen bleeding and many women demonstrators wept as they were taken to the buses. But witnesses said they did not see any seriously injured. The buses left for a yet unknown destination.Occupying the front parking lot facing the main ministry building, they called for a referendum to give the population of the former Portuguese colony, which was invaded by Indonesian troops in1975, the right to self-determination.Less than 30 minutes after troop action, only shoes, bags and other belongings of the demonstrators were left littering the scene where protesters had threatened to camp until they could meet Foreign Minister Ali Alatas. Alatas is currently in the Philippines.President B.J. Habibie has said the government was prepared to accord `special status' for East Timor. But the offer of autonomy within Indonesia has since been rejected by protesting East Timorese activists. Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976 but the United Nations and most states continue to view Lisbon as the official administrator of the territory.The protesters, echoing the demands aired in daily free-speech forums at the Timor University in the East Timor capital Dili, had also demanded the release of East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao.The leader of the East Timorese pro-independence rebel movement until his capture in 1992, is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence at the Cipinang jailin Jakarta. An Indonesian court in Dili in 1993 found him guilty of plotting against the state and of illegal possesion of weapons.The protesters from an association of Timorese youth living outside the territory also carried pictures of Gusmao and called for his release. There have been mounting international demands that Indonesia release Gusmao. This has been rejected by the authorities who insist he was jailed on criminal charges. But in Dili, 12 of the 16 political prisoners released under an amnesty ordered by Habibie, walked free from the Becora jail there on Friday.
