Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 13:11:34 GMT
From: "Kevin Murray" <kcmurray23-AT-email.msn.com>
Subject: AUT: Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 22:46:21 -0400


Boston, September 17, 1999

Dear Friends,

With a mixture of deep sadness, anger and great hope for the future, we
share with you the announcement of Grassroots International's emergency
response to the situation in East Timor.  One of the primary ways that
people will find out about this campaign in the next few days is by you
forwarding this announcement to your contacts and posting it to mail lists.
Please take the time to do so.  Above all, ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR!

In solidarity,

Sona Bari, Campaign Coordinator
Martha Thompson, Program Coordinator for East Timor
Kevin Murray, Executive Director
and the entire staff and board of Grassroots International

--------------------------------
ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR!
A Grassroots International campaign
<http://www.grassrootsonline.org>

Grassroots International announces the launch of ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR,  a
humanitarian aid and policy advocacy campaign in support of the people of
East Timor and their aspiration for independence.

Since the August 30 referendum in favor of independence, hundreds of
thousands of East Timorese have been brutally murdered or driven from their
homes for their support of independence.  A clear, firm U.S. policy based on
the human rights of the Timorese people rather than U.S. economic and
geopolitical interests in Indonesia could have avoided this humanitarian
disaster.  The scale of the disaster and the nature of U.S. involvement in
this situation demand that we respond.  ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR will help the
East Timorese reconstruct a society and construct a new, independent state.

The campaign will seek private funds from U.S. sources for an East Timor
Relief and Reconstruction Fund.  At first, the fund will prioritize aid to
the up to 300,000 East Timorese people displaced by the violence within East
Timor.  If possible, it will also provide appropriate humanitarian
assistance to refugees in camps in West Timor.  Those camps are currently
under Indonesian military control and the question of humanitarian access is
far from settled.  In any case, work with refugees must focus on creating
the conditions for their eventual safe return to East Timor.

The brutality of the Indonesian military and its militias has left the
organizations of the Timorese independence movement scattered, with many of
their leaders assassinated or in exile.  In the medium to long term,
Grassroots International will provide aid  to help Timorese social
organizations regroup and resume the work of service to their communities.

In coordination with the East Timor Action Network (ETAN), the campaign will
pursue a U.S. policy agenda designed to exert maximum pressure on Indonesia
to end the orgy of violence and to withdraw its military forces from East
Timor.  To this end, campaign supporters will work to influence U.S.
government policy and that of the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank.  ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR will also join those who seek to ensure that
an eventual international peacekeeping force does not in any way impede the
realization of Timorese independence.

Grassroots International is a private human rights and development
organization that supports movements for social change in Brazil, Eritrea,
Haiti, Mexico and Palestine, and does advocacy and educational work in the
United States. Current agency programs in Haiti and Eritrea began as
responses to emergency situations in those countries.

For more information, or to get involved in this campaign, visit our website
at <http://www.grassrootsonline.org>.  You may also contact Grassroots
International by phone at 617-524-1400, or by e-mail at
<mailto:grassroots-AT-igc.org>.

Tax-deductible donations should be marked ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR and sent
to: Grassroots International, ACT NOW FOR EAST TIMOR, 179 Boylston St., 4th
Floor, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, USA.

The press should speak directly with Campaign Coordinator, Sona Bari
<mailto:sbari-AT-mindspring.com>.







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