March 3, 2000
Dili - East Timor's resistance movement said here yesterday that it had accepted an apology from Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid for 24 years of oppression.
"It is quite enough for us. As a citizen of East Timor, we want reconciliation, normalisation, not only among East Timorese people, but with Indonesia," said David Ximenes of the National Resistance Council of East Timor (CNRT). "It was a good position he took, when he was here and tried to apologise," said Ximenes, a co-ordinator of the CNRT that is headed by Xanana Gusmao.
He was referring to the apology made by Abdurrahman when he paid a landmark visit to East Timor on Tuesday, and laid a floral wreath at the Santa Cruz cemetery, the site of the 1991 massacre of more than 100 civilians by Indonesian troops.
Asked if he thought the apology was real, Ximenes replied: "I think so, because he was our friend during the Suharto system."--AFP
