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DATE=9/6/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=GUSMAO RELEASE (L-O)
NUMBER=2-253521
BYLINE=BRONWYN CURRAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Soon-to-be-freed East Timor resistance leader 
Xanana Gusmao is refusing to return to East Timor.  Mr 
Gusmao has told the Indonesian government he wants to 
be released in the capital Jakarta, because it is too 
dangerous to return to his terrorized homeland.
TEXT:  Mr. Gusmao has been asking the Indonesian 
government to let him return to East Timor since 
President B-J Habibie announced plans for an 
independence referendum in the island territory last 
January.
Jakarta has refused, until now.
Justice Minister Muladi is proposing to release the 
former guerilla leader Wednesday and send him back to 
East Timor, where his security would be in the hands 
of the besieged, unarmed United Nations mission.
Mr Gusmao met (Monday) with Minister Muladi, and told 
him he refuses to return to the current conditions.  
His lawyer, Hendardi, says it is too dangerous, and 
his client wants to be released in Jakarta, from where 
he will decide his next step as a free man.
                      // HENDARDI ACT //
      The government wants to bring Xanana to Unamet.  
      We know that Unamet not in a good situation too, 
      so Unamet cannot guarantee Xanana there, I 
      think, we think.  So Xanana refuse to go to east 
      Timor.
                      // END ACT //
Hendardi says the government's motivation in releasing 
Xanana now is to wash its hands of responsibility for 
the brutal violence raging in the former Portuguese 
colony.
                     // HENDARDI ACT //
      Before Xanana and us the lawyers ask to the 
      government to bring Xanana there to make a slow-
      down situation, but the government did not agree 
      after that.  But now when the situation is 
      chaos, they will send our client.  It is we 
      cannot accept that.
                  // END ACT //
Mr. Gusmao, fellow independence leaders, and his 
lawyers are discussing several options to follow his 
imminent release.  Among them, safe haven at the Dutch 
Embassy in Jakarta where Portugal's representative has 
an office -- and Australia, which has offered him 
sanctuary.
Mr. Gusmao has been under house arrest in Jakarta 
since January, when he was moved from nearby Cipinang 
Prison.
He had been jailed there since his capture in East 
Timor by Indonesia's military in 1992, after leading 
the armed insurgency against Indonesian rule for 
almost 15-years.  He is now president of the National 
Council of East Timorese Resistance -- and is widely 
expected to become the first president of East Timor, 
when it receives the independence for which it voted.   
(SIGNOFF)
NEB/BC/RAE
06-Sep-1999 14:56 PM LOC (06-Sep-1999 1856 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.