EIGHT East Timorese asylum-seekers were holed up in the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta last night in the third such incident in a year. The youths entered the embassy at 1 pm before submitting an application for asylum to authorities. As motorcycle police kept a vigil outside the embassy last night, an embassy official said an announcement on the status of the eight youths would be made this morning. The men were believed to have requested asylum in either Portugal or Holland. Officials were still awaiting a response from those countries. The Dutch Embassy also acts as Portugal's business representative in Indonesia. Human rights campaigner Haji Princen said last night Portugal would definitely offer the eight asylum as it had done in two previous incidents in the past year. He said Portugal had a policy of automatically accepting genuine applicants. The last incident was in September, when a group of five East Timorese, claiming to be members of an underground resistance movement against Indonesian rule in their province, entered the British Embassy and asked for asylum. The five said they had been wanted by authorities since the Dili massacre in East Timor in 1991. The Indonesian Government dismissed the action as a publicity stunt orchestrated by 'foreign detractors' and denied that authorities had harassed the group. After almost a week in the embassy, the five were allowed to leave unobstructed for Portugal. Another incident was in November last year, when 29 East Timorese youths scaled the United States Embassy's fence during a visit by President Bill Clinton for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. The asylum-seekers spent 12 days in the parking lot of the embassy before being granted asylum, again by Portugal.
