Timor bishop tells group, `You hold power' - Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo at the Jubilee Justice gathering - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, July 30, 1999

The 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Dili, East Timor, told the Jubilee Justice gathering here July 17: "You hold in your hands great power to affect the future of the world, for good or evil."

He referred only in passing to the upcoming U.N.-sponsored referendum on East Timor's independence from Indonesia or to his own delayed departure from Dili because of difficulties with his passport.

Belo recently said the vote on East Timor's independence from Indonesia, once set for Aug. 8, should be postponed unless peace was quickly restored to the island. He accused the Indonesian military of working to eliminate anyone who might vote for independence. In Los Angeles, Belo was much more circumspect. He said only that he hoped the elections, would be "fair and free and that the people will act responsibly."