c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Timorese Bishop Carlos Belo said Tuesday (Sept. 14) he has asked Pope John Paul II to seek President Clinton’s help in speeding up the deployment of a peacekeeping force”to save the population”of East Timor.”We hope that he (Clinton) does not have two weights and two measures _ one for Kosovo and the other for Timor,”Belo said,”because his interest must be to save poor people wherever they are.” Reports from the United Nations said a Security Council vote on a resolution to establish an international force for East Timor could come

as soon as Wednesday with deployment of some 8,000 troops by the weekend.

But the feisty 51-year-old Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, said it also is”necessary”for the Timorese to start defending themselves from the pro-Indonesia militias that have laid waste to the country.

At a Vatican news conference following his two-hour meeting Monday with the pope and Archbishop Jean-Luis Tauran, the Vatican secretary of state, Belo estimated anti-independence militias have killed 10,000 people, sent 100,000 fleeing into the mountains and forests and deported 80,000 to West Timor.”The problem is that the Timorese people don’t respond,”the bishop said.”The Timorese people never kill, never burn down houses. That is good, but it is also necessary to defend ourselves.”I have not incited the people to take up arms, but the right to self-defense is recognized in Catholic morality,”he said.

The prelate fled East Timor last week after militias attacked his residence where some 6,000 people had taken refuge. He said the armed men killed 25 people, destroyed part of the building and burned documents in what was part of”a direct attack”on the church of predominantly Catholic East Timor.”I didn’t want to leave my people, but the pope had to be informed,”he said.”But I have assured the pope that as soon as the peacekeeping forces arrive, I will return to East Timor to be among my lost sheep.” Belo, speaking in fluent Italian, said that in their meeting at the pope’s summer residence at Castelgandolfo near Rome, John Paul asked what he could do to help the people of East Timor.”I answered that the holy father has already done much and has already intervened but that if he wanted to face an urgency, he could try to solicit President Clinton to press for immediate action on an international peacekeeping force,”Belo said.”This is the first urgency, the need to save the population. The second urgency is for humanitarian aid to arrive,”the bishop said. He said the pope agreed and would act through diplomatic channels.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Some humanitarian groups are in the first stages of a response. On Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross sent an assessment team into Dili, the ravaged capital of East Timor. Churches in West Timor have begun working with the refugees who have fled there and Action by Churches Together, the World Council of Churches and Lutheran World Federation joint relief agency has provided an initial $50,000.

Other agencies already involved or poised to return to East Timor include ADRA, the Adventist development and relief agency, World Relief, the aid arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, and World Vision, the evangelical relief and aid agency.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Belo, asked why he wanted Clinton’s help, replied dryly:”Because he is the master of the world.” (Tauran, meanwhile, criticized Muslim religious leaders for not speaking out against the violence in East Timor, Reuters reported. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation.”On this subject, allow me to tell you how disappointed I am to see that no Muslim religious personality has raised his voice to condemn the massacre of Christians and the systematic destruction of the church’s works in Timor,”Tauran told the French Catholic daily La Croix.)

Belo said it would be up to the United Nations and the international community to deal with the problem of war crimes. But he said that the deployment of a peacekeeping force, the delivery of food, water and medicine to displaced people and the return of the deported Timorese must take precedence.”I do not ask the U.N. for an ad hoc tribunal but that they see if there is a crime and take the initiatives. It has been done elsewhere, why not in Timor?”he said.”One cannot remain silent on these crimes against humanity.” (OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Belo accused the Indonesian military and police of recruiting, arming and equipping the militias. He said there were some”special Indonesian troops”in the militias.

The militias used psychological warfare and intimidation and spent millions to buy votes in an unsuccessful attempt to influence the outcome of the Aug. 30 referendum, he said. More than 78 percent of Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia rather than an autonomous status.

The bishop said the militias attacked the church because it”has been the voice of the Timorese, who could not speak freely.”He said the Indonesian military saw the Nobel Peace Prize as”a slap in the face”and mounted”a vendetta”against him and Bishop Basilio do Nascimento, apostolic administrator of Baucau.

Belo said the the militia leaders also were angered by a pastoral letter in which the bishops urged Timorese to vote their consciences in the referendum and by the fact that young pro-independence Timorese would take refuge in church buildings when they were in trouble with authorities.

DEA END POLK