Pallbearers for a lost people

By Mathew Dearnaley

Auckland East Timor activists were ready last week to bury their protest coffin in the euphoria of the overwhelming independence vote.

But the symbolic box of death was back yesterday, when 200 protesters marched to a mournful drumbeat demanding that Indonesia halt the killings which have resumed in the troubled territory.

The protesters, from the parents of 6-month-old Same Ellis to 66-year-old retired public servant Alan Holland, wanted to tell politicians to forget about Apec trade talks while a humanitarian disaster unfolded.

"Apec, Apec, you can't hide - you're in bed with genocide," they chanted, following hooded pallbearers down Queen St and around to the Heritage Hotel, where Indonesia's Apec delegation is staying.

Same, who was conceived while her parents were visiting East Timor and is named after a town where militiamen took control last week, slept in her pushchair as her hooded father, Dougal, beat the funeral drum.

Mr Holland said he was unable to speak out during his public service career, but owed it to his grandchildren to act now against the atrocities in East Timor.

The demonstration gave Aucklanders an early taste of the disruption they have been warned to expect for the next six days, but most remained patient as the unauthorised but orderly protest held up lunchtime traffic.

About 40 police followed the march and a helicopter circled constantly.

But apart from angry words about police video cameras recording their every move, the protesters remained peaceful while an anonymous Indonesian diplomat accepted a letter outside the hotel.

Dave Robinson, a justice of the peace from Waiheke Island, said the protest was something 90 per cent of New Zealanders would support and he objected to being put on surveillance tape.

Veteran protester Maire Leadbeater told the diplomat she had nothing against the Indonesian people, "but we are appalled, shocked and absolutely desperate about the carnage taking place in East Timor."

He replied with a polite "thank you" before police whisked him back inside.

The letter was addressed to the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas, but his presence at Apec was in doubt last night as word came through that President Habibie was not coming to face the music in Auckland.

An Indonesian delegation spokesman, Wahid Supriyadi, said Dr Alatas was concentrating on receiving a mission which arrived in Jakarta yesterday from the United Nations Security Council.

The Indonesian Finance and Trade Minister, Ginanjar Karpasasmita, arrived in Auckland yesterday but was meeting his New Zealand counterpart, Lockwood Smith, away from the hotel when the protesters arrived.