Resistência Nacional dos Estudantes de Timor-Leste

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Memorial ceremony for martyrs of RENETIL (2017). The green flag is the flag of RENETIL.

The Resistência Nacional dos Estudantes de Timor-Leste RENETIL ( German  National Resistance Movement of the Students of East Timor ) was the resistance movement of the students outside East Timor against the Indonesian occupation of the country between 1975 and 1999.

history

Commemoration at the Heroes' Cemetery in Metinaro

The RENETIL was on 20 June 1988 at the Indonesian Denpasar on Bali founded by ten East Timorese students. Fernando de Araújo took over as General Secretary. The organization quickly expanded to other Indonesian cities with East Timorese students.

As a result of the Santa Cruz massacre in Dili in 1991, RENETIL organized their first demonstration in Jakarta a week later . Originally it was supposed to take place with the stopover of the delegation of the Parliament of Portugal on the way to East Timor, but the trip was canceled. Demonstrators from each RENETIL regional group were sent to Jakarta, eight from Yogyakarta, for example. A total of 72 people demonstrated in front of the United Nations office on November 19 . When they crossed the street towards the Japanese embassy, ​​they were all arrested. Fernando de Araújo was arrested on November 24th and was sentenced to nine years in prison for subversion , of which he served more than six years. The rest of the management level was also arrested. José Antonio Neves , who was chosen to replace Araújo, was jailed just four months later.

The RENETIL still existed and tried to "Indonesize" the East Timor conflict by getting in touch with Indonesian opposition groups that fought against the Suharto regime. The main organizations were the People's Democratic Union PRD and the Student Solidarity for Democracy SMID. She founded the solidarity movement Indonesian People's Solidarity with the Maupe People SPRIM. This cooperation also led to a rethink within the Indonesian democracy movement on the East Timor question. On the other hand, the democracy movement itself was driven by the East Timorese students. They often formed the heart of the groups and also promoted a more militant line. While the Indonesians protested mostly peacefully at demonstrations, the East Timorese threw stones and burned pictures of President Suharto, which had an impact on the military's reactions to the demonstrations and the movement.

In addition, the Ikatan Mahasiswa dan Pelajar Timor Timur IMPETTU ( German  Students Timor Timur ), the state Indonesian-East Timorese student organization, began to be infiltrated. All IMPETTU leaders in Denpasar had been members of RENETIL since 1989. In 1993 and 1994 RENETIL members won several internal IMPETTU elections. The Indonesian military and the Indonesian governor of East Timor, José Abílio Osório Soares , then began to veto candidates they did not like. RENETIL began to circumvent this measure by gradually changing the individual IMPETTU local chapters from 1996 onwards to support the independence of East Timor and their political programs. The internal elections were now carried out without the regime's supervision, so that the influence of RENETIL continued to grow within IMPETTU. From September 1996, the IMPETTU local chapters placed themselves under the leadership and coordination of RENETIL Deputy Secretary General Mariano Sabino Lopes .

On December 7, 1995, students from RENETIL, IMPETTU and the Associação Socialista Timorense AST demonstrated together in front of the embassies of the Netherlands and Russia in Jakarta. Indonesian pro-democracy activists joined them. In March 1997 a group of RENETIL activists broke into the Austrian embassy in Jakarta. They succeeded in ensuring that the representative of the UN Secretary General Jamsheed Marker was able to meet the imprisoned FALINTIL leader Xanana Gusmão on his way to East Timor during his stopover in Jakarta . After the action, 20 RENETIL members were arrested. As a punishment, their Indonesian ID was stripped from them and all Indonesian citizenship rights were revoked. RENETIL organized various underground actions under the pretext of holding IMPETTU events. While IMPETTU brought East Timorese students together from all over Indonesia for sports competitions, seminars and cultural festivals, RENETIL organized political meetings.

On May 21, 1998, President Suharto resigned and his successor, Jusuf Habibie , introduced democratic reforms. On June 6, 1998, on behalf of RENETIL, Mariano Sabino Lopes called for a conference of the regional heads of IMPETTU. The individual associations have now been officially united on it and an IMPETTU Leadership Council (DPP IMPETTU) under Mariano Sabino Lopes was founded. On June 12, the largest East Timor demonstration in Indonesia took place in front of the Foreign Ministry building in Jakarta. Over 1800 IMPETTU members called for an independence referendum. The police violently ended the demonstration. Nevertheless, there were further demonstrations in various locations in Jakarta in the following weeks.

On August 30, 1999, the independence referendum finally took place in East Timor , in which a clear majority of the population voted for independence from Indonesia. After a last wave of violence and the intervention of the international protection force INTERFET , the United Nations took over the administration and finally released East Timor into independence in 2002. The Partido Democrático , founded in 2001, includes numerous former members of RENETIL. Fernando de Araújo was party leader of the PD until his death in 2015 and most recently Minister of State, Coordinator for Social Affairs and Minister for Education. Mariano Sabino Lopes is Secretary General of the PD and was Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 2007 to 2015. Lucas da Costa was a member of the East Timorese national parliament from 2007 to 2012 . António da Conceição has been Minister for Trade, Industry and the Environment since 2012. RENETIL members also achieved leading positions in other parties.

Members

Founding members

Funeral of martyrs of the RENETIL

Fernando de Araújo, Lucas da Costa, José Ave Maria Gonçalves , Júlio Abel , Marciano Garcia , João Araújo , Adolpho Fontes , João Cardoso Fernandes , Carlos Lopes and Agapito Cardoso .

guide

Fernando de Araújo was General Secretary from 1989 to 1999. He was followed by Miguel Manetelu .

After Araújo was arrested in 1991, José Antonio Neves took over the management. After his arrest, the leadership was transferred to an eight-member praesidium. Its members were: Joaquim Fonseca , Virgilio da Silva , Benjamin Martins , Julio Jacob , Lucas da Costa, Adérito de Jesus Soares , José Pompeia and António da Conceição.

In 1996 the organization was divided into three regional groups: Indonesia, East Timor and the rest of the world. Joaquim Fonseca headed the Indonesia group . His deputy was Mariano Sabino Lopes. António da Conceição led the East Timor group . The overseas group, based in Portugal , was headed by Carlos da Silva Lopes . Mariano Sabino Lopes was IMPETTU's National Coordinator from 1996.

Other former members

See also

Web links

Commons : RENETIL  - collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Nicholson, p. 56.
  2. ↑ Nicholson, p. 19.
  3. ↑ Nicholson, p. 23.
  4. ↑ Parliament's website: Profile of Fernando de Araújo , October 29, 2008 ( memento of October 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Portuguese)
  5. ↑ Nicholson, p. 24.
  6. ↑ a b Nicholson, p. 29.
  7. ↑ a b Nicholson, p. 30.
  8. ↑ Nicholson, p. 31.
  9. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 28-29.
  10. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 29-30.
  11. ↑ Nicholson, p. 32.
  12. ↑ Nicholson, p. 35.
  13. ↑ Nicholson, pp. 36-37.
  14. ↑ Nicholson, p. 55.

See also