Sir, - One must have a certain amount of sympathy for Hendrati S. Munthe (April 9th), of the Indonesian embassy in London. It must be a thankless job, salary aside, to attempt to defend the role of the Indonesian military in East Timor. However, any such sympathy must be set against the background of the appalling loss of life suffered by the East Timorese since Indonesia invaded and occupied the territory.
We are informed by Mrs Munthe that the "overwhelming majority" of the people of East Timor want to be part of Indonesia. The logic of her comments is that her government would have no problem with an internationally supervised referendum under the auspices of the United Nations. We in ETISC would welcome this move. In fact, we would be prepared to go a step further: if after such a referendum the "overwhelming majority" of the East Timorese choose to become part of Indonesia, this campaign would cease its lobbying on the East Timor issue.
If such a proposal is unacceptable to the Indonesian government, your readers can judge for themselves the accuracy of Mrs Munthe's comments. - Yours, etc.,
East Timor,
Ireland Solidarity Campaign,
Le Fanu Road,
Ballyfermot,
Dublin 10.