Sir, - In David Shanks's article on occupied East Timor (The Irish Times, August 7th), the comment that the ongoing negotiations between Portugal and Indonesia follow "the classical pattern of an understanding between 19th century nation-states" was completely accurate.
Here we have two colonial powers, Portugal and Indonesia, meeting to have a chat in New York about the fate of a people who, after Portuguese colonialism and now Indonesian colonialism, have not been allowed to have any input into the discussion about their own future.
Has the world changed so little in 100 years? Judging by these "negotiations", the answer seem to be no. International law and 10 UN resolutions seem to be taking a back seat as these two colonialists haggle over the fate of the Timorese, just as the "great powers" haggled over Africa in the last century.
Recent reports that they have come to an agreement over implementing "autonomy" seem to confirm this. All this "autonomy" nonsense will do is legitimise Indonesia's illegal occupation, with the East Timorese only having the power to pass laws concerning street cleaning and rubbish collection. In South Africa this was called a bantustan - a failed experiment in native control. This was rightly rejected by the vast majority of South Africans. And no doubt the people of East Timor, true to their spirit of resistance, will follow suit. - Yours, etc., Karl Hayden,
Harcourt Green,
Dublin 2.