Gaye Davis
A DELEGATION from Indonesian-occupied East Timor left South Africa this week with an assurance from President Nelson Mandela that donations to the African National Congress by the Indonesian government would not make “a hostage” of South African foreign policy.
Jorge Ramos Horta, who represents the East Timorese resistance movement, said Mandela gave the assurance during a “very frank” 30-minute meeting which took place in the bedroom of Mandela’s Houghton home on Sunday, where he was recovering from knee surgery.
The delegation, which came as guests of the ANC, left ruffled feathers in the Indonesian embassy following an incident at an international fair in Pretoria on Saturday, which resulted in the Indonesian ambassador lodging a protest with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
At issue was the warm welcome extended to the East Timorese delegation by a DFA official at the fair, organised by the Junior Foreign Service Officers’ Club and Pretoria University’s rag committee. Ramos Horta was given the opportunity to speak and the Indonesians’ affront was compounded when a club official, owing to a misunderstanding, lowered the flag flying above the Indonesian stall.
Foreign ministry representative Pieter Swanepoel confirmed that on Tuesday the Indonesian ambassador met Tutu Mazibuko, deputy director general in charge of Asia and the Middle East. Mazibuko stressed that the event had not been an official DFA function.
South Africa’s diplomatic relations with Indonesia — – which annexed the former Portuguese colony by force in 1975, sparking a struggle for independence which has seen some 200 000 East Timorese die — is one of the more glaring contradictions of South Africa’s post-apartheid foreign policy.
Ramos Horta said Mandela explained to the delegation during the meeting that he had not raised the issue of the East Timor people’s struggle when he first visited Indonesia to solicit funds for the ANC’s election campaign as he was not well informed about the situation.
“After the elections the ANC still needed money so he went a second time. He said the donations would not make South African foreign policy a hostage and said that he did raise the issue of East Timor. He said he had a lot of objections to his going from within the ANC and from non-governmental organisations,” Ramos Horta said.
ANC MP Raymond Suttner, chair of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs portfolio committee, said: “A number of us feel quite strongly in support of the right of the people of East Timor to self- determination and about the human rights violations in Indonesia. It is important the president did stress that the fact we received donations will not determine our foreign policy in this area.”
The delegation gave Mandela a letter from imprisoned East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. Mandela said he would reply to it and handed over a copy of his biography, Long Walk to Freedom, to give to Gusmao with the inscription: “With best wishes to an outstanding freedom fighter.”
Ramos Horta said the delegation had asked Mandela to speak to United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ahead of the next round of talks between Indonesia and Portugal in December.
‘For us it is the last round if Indonesia does not want to come with a more flexible position,” said Ramos Horta. “We want Indonesia to agree to release all prisoners and stop the torture. In return, we would call a moratorium on guerrilla activity and street demonstrations.”
Mandela displayed “enormous understanding and real sympathy”, Ramos Horta said. “We leave with complete satisfaction, partly because we did not come expecting too much.”
The delegation understood the conflicting interests which had to be juggled to further South Africa’s own agenda, even if this meant the ANC “taking certain steps that could be shocking when looking at its position on human rights”.
Presidential representative Parks Mankahlana confirmed the meeting took place. “It would be inappropriate at this stage to make any statement about the content of the discussion because of the sensitivity of the issues involved,” he said.