MANILA, MAY 21 -- Under pressure from Indonesia, the Philippine government is banning invited foreign participants from a conference here on the troubled Indonesian-held territory of East Timor, but the move is stirring resentment from defenders of Philippine democracy.
Faced with retaliatory measures by Jakarta, Philippine President Fidel Ramos ordered Philippine authorities on Friday to bar exiled East Timor separatist leader Jose Ramos-Horta, seven confederates and "other non-Filipino conferees" from entering the country to attend a private "Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor" at the University of the Philippines from May 31 to June 4.
Ramos said their presence at the conference, aimed at promoting human rights and self-determination in East Timor, would be "inimical to the national interest."
Indonesia welcomed the move but showed no sign of dropping its opposition to the holding of such a conference in the Philippines. Filipino critics accused the government of sacrificing democratic principles by giving in to what they described as Indonesian bullying and blackmail.
The Philippines lags behind its prospering partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in economic growth, but it is proud of its democracy, including constitutional guarantees of free speech, press and assembly that most of its neighbors in practice do not enjoy. ASEAN comprises Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
With 185 million people, more than the rest of ASEAN combined, Indonesia ranks as the world's fourth-largest nation. Under Gen. Suharto, who has held power for 28 years, the predominantly Muslim country now seeks a position of leadership in the Third World. But tiny East Timor, a largely Roman Catholic former Portuguese colony that Indonesia annexed in 1976, has remained a thorn in Jakarta's side and a snag on its ambitions.
The Indonesian army has been blamed for massive human rights abuses in East Timor, including many of the estimated 100,000 deaths that resulted from the 1976 invasion and a subsequent famine. A resistance movement called Fretilin continues to wage a sporadic, low-intensity armed struggle. Many of the territory's 800,000 people still reject Jakarta's rule, and the United Nations refuses to recognize Indonesia's "integration" of East Timor as its 27th province.
In seeking to placate Jakarta, the Ramos government was "acting as if the Philippines is Indonesia's 28th province," complained Renato Constantino Jr., one of the conference organizers. The pressure on the Philippines to scuttle the meeting "shows the blatant aggressive nature of Indonesia," he said. "If the Indonesians can do this in the Philippines, you can image what they're doing in East Timor." He vowed that the conference would go ahead.
Jakarta has rejected Manila's explanations that while it recognizes Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor and disagrees with the premise of the conference, it is constitutionally unable to stop the meeting.
In apparent retaliation, Indonesia indefinitely postponed the second round of peace talks between the Ramos government and Philippine Muslim rebels in Jakarta this month, and has hinted that it might stop hosting the negotiations altogether. Indonesian Muslim leaders and diplomats issued what were interpreted here as veiled threats to boost the cause of the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front.
In addition, a 250-member Indonesian delegation pulled out of an international business convention to be held in the southern Philippine city of Davao at the end of the month, postponing a dozen major joint venture agreements worth an estimated $300 million. An Indonesian university delegation shelved a visit to attend a conference here with 20 other Asia-Pacific countries. And the Indonesian navy seized 25 Philippine fishing boats and arrested more than 100 crew members this week for allegedly entering Indonesian waters.
The result of the fuss has been to raise the profile of East Timor, which had been negligible here although the Philippines is also predominantly Roman Catholic.