Nobel Goes to Activists Pitted Against Indonesia

By TYLER MARSHALL

Oct. 12, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — In a surprise move, the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to two largely unknown figures struggling for human rights in a conflict that much of the world knows little about.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, acting with its usual secrecy until its announcement, gave the much-coveted award to Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, 48, and political activist Jose Ramos-Horta, 51, two leading figures pressing to bring peace to the troubled Asian region of East Timor.

The former Portuguese colony was annexed by Indonesia 20 years ago, and opposition groups have resisted an oft-oppressive Indonesian rule since then.

In making the award in Oslo, the Nobel committee cited estimates that as many as one-third of East Timor’s population--now 720,000 people--has died from starvation, epidemics, war and terror in the two decades since Indonesian forces arrived there.

Most nations still recognize Portuguese sovereignty over the region, made up principally of the eastern half of the island of Timor. Although the United States in 1976 accepted Indonesia’s incorporation of the territory, it did not recognize it as “a valid act of self-determination.”

In a statement, the Nobel committee said it “hopes that this award will spur efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in East Timor based on the people’s right to self-determination.”

This was the second year in a row and the fifth time in the last two decades that the Nobel committee passed over prominent candidates to honor individuals little known to the world at large.

Last year, the prize was shared by veteran anti-nuclear campaigner Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs that he helped found to further his cause.

Other little-known winners in recent years have included Guatemalan Indian rights activist Rigoberta Menchu (1992); Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi (1991); and Northern Ireland peace activists Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan (1976). Some observers believe that the trend--largely absent in the earlier years of the century--is not a good sign.

“It represents a desire to play it safe,” said Richard Haass, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution here. “There’s just larger things going on in the world that the Nobel peace committee doesn’t seem to want to recognize. They’re frittering away its importance.”

Haass compared the peace laureates with the winners of Nobel prizes in other areas, such as science and economics, where he said there has been “an attempt to select truly historic, influential contributions. . . . It’s hard with the peace prize because it’s more political.”

Two years ago, Nobel committee member Kare Kristiansen resigned in disgust on the day Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was awarded the prize along with Israeli leaders Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, then called his own news conference and denounced Arafat as a terrorist.

Among those mentioned as contenders for this year’s prize were former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, for his work in brokering a shaky peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, former President Jimmy Carter and Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng.

Indonesia expressed official displeasure at Friday’s awards.

“We are quite surprised and regret” the prize, especially the award to Ramos-Horta, the Indonesian Foreign Office spokesman, Ghaffar Fadyl, said in the capital, Jakarta.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry gave an unenthusiastic response to Friday’s announcement, saying: “All those who attempt to bring a calmer atmosphere to East Timor and bring respect for fundamental human rights are to be congratulated.”

But human rights groups seemed elated by the committee’s choice.

“This will bring East Timor back to the international forefront,” predicted Michael Jenrzejczyk, Washington director of the Asia section of Human Rights Watch. “It’s always better to give prizes like this to people who are on the ground and fighting for human rights.”

T. Kumar, an Asia specialist at Amnesty International’s office here, added: “It’s a strong message to [Indonesian President] Suharto that the international community is watching.”

But Jenrzejczyk and Kumar expressed concern that if news of the award sparks celebrations and demonstrations on the island, Jakarta could launch a crackdown.

“We’ll be watching that very closely in the days ahead,” Jenrzejczyk said.

As a prominent figure among East Timor’s largely Roman Catholic population, Belo has often played a central role in calming tensions between Indonesian forces and the local population. He has acted as a voice of moderation during anti-government disturbances, yet provided sanctuary to East Timorese dissidents fleeing Indonesian forces. And he prodded the government to investigate mass killings in 1991.

Indonesia was subject to international censure when it killed pro-independence East Timorese protesters in November 1991; the government claimed 50 protesters were killed, while human rights groups said the army had slain about 200.

Ramos-Horta represents the largest of East Timor’s opposition guerrilla groups, Fretilin, and has traveled widely in the West to press for the island’s independence.

Speaking to the Australia Broadcasting Corp. from his mother’s home in Sydney, Australia, Ramos-Horta said the award will help his struggle, which he said is reaching a turning point.

Belo heard the news while celebrating Mass in the East Timorese city of Dili. He told reporters the prize was “for all the people of East Timor who have worked hard for peace in the territory.”

The prize carries a cash award of $1.2 million.

While recognizing Belo and Ramos-Horta will certainly raise awareness of their struggle to win East Timor’s independence from Indonesia, the experience of some other obscure peace prize winners shows that the award can bring problems as well as benefits.

“It’s made a very big difference to my way of life. . . . I have had so many engagements during the year [that] it has affected my time to think,” Rotblat told Reuters news agency. “I’ve devoted myself to peace, but it has brought no peace to me.”

For Suu Kyi, the human rights activist in Myanmar, the prize provided more prominence and undoubtedly brought political pressure that speeded her release from house arrest. But five years later, the military government she opposes remains in power and refuses to recognize her as a negotiating partner.

Perhaps the most disastrous impact the prize has had in recent decades was on the lives of the two Northern Ireland peace activists, Williams and Corrigan, Roman Catholics from Belfast who founded the Peace People movement in the mid-1970s and brought thousands onto the streets to protest for peace.

Within months of winning, the two fell out in a dispute over the award money. They became objects of ridicule; their movement all but died. A decade later, during filming of a television documentary, they still refused to speak to each other.

Meanwhile, the violence they had hoped to stop continues.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Winners and Their Cause

One of the Peace Prize winners travels the world rallying support. The other remains on the island, where he monitors human rights and criticizes Indonesian rule. Here’s some background on the conflict:

WHAT THEY’VE DONE

Name: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo

Role: Bishop of East Timor; has been the foremost representative of the people. At the risk of his own life, he has tried to protect his people from infringements by those in power. He has been a constant spokesman for nonviolence and dialogue with the Indonesian authorities.

Name: Jose Ramos-Horta

Role: A former leftist guerrilla; has been the leading international spokesman for East Timor’s cause since 1975. He works from his base in Sydney, Australia. Recently he has made a significant contribution through “reconciliation talks.”

A TROUBLED TERRITORY

Background: Civil war broke out in East Timor in 1975 on the eve of independence from Portugal. Indonesian then invaded East Timor and annexed it, a move that remains unrecognized by the United Nations. In the years that followed it has been estimated that one-third of the population of East Timor died due to starvation, epidemics, war and terror.

Size: Nearly twice the size of Massachusetts

Population: 600,000 to 650,000

People: Mix of Asian and Melanesian

PAST PICKS--AND CONTROVERSY

This year’s award involving two leaders of East Timor’s independence movement has angered Indonesia. It is by no means the first time the Nobel Committee has fallen foul of the powers that be.

* Indicates awards that caused biggest stirs

1995: Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, Britain

1994: Yasser Arafat, Gaza, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, Israel

1993: Nelson Mandel and F.W. de Klerk, South Africa

* 1992: Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemala

* 1991: Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar

1990: Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet Union

* 1989: The Dalai Lama, Tibet

1988: The U.N. Peacekeeping Operations

1987: Oscar Arias Sanchez, Costa Rica

1986: Elie Wiesel, United States

1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Inc