Soldiers fly home

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 9

Soldiers fly home

NZPA-Reuter Bali Almost a year of captivity has ended for 23 Portuguese soldiers who have flown home along with more than 100 other people from East Timor opting for repatriation rather than life under Indonesian rule. After a brief hand-over’ ceremony, the Portuguese' left Bali on Tuesday for the long flight back to Lisbon in a Portuguese Air Force jet. ■ The 23 soldiers, who were picked up by pro-Indonesian forces at the outbreak of a civil war in the former Portuguese colony, had flown to ißali in an Indonesian Air I

Force transport plane. They emerged clad in Ini donesian-made safari suits, saying they had been well treated despite a diet of little more than rice. They were handed over by the Indonesian Red Cross to the Portuguese Presidential ■ envoy, General Morais da i Silva, who negotiated their release during recent secret talks in Bangkok. Although General da Silva said the release had been unconditional, observers noted that it came immediately after reports that he had given Lisbon’s approval (for Indonesia’s formal take-

over of East Timor on July 17. In Jakarta, the Indonesian Information Minister (Mr Mashuri) said yesterday that Portugal had officially recognised East Timor’s integration with Indonesia in secret talks with an East Timor delegation in Bangkok on Sunday. The Indonesian Government will release a total of 2500 hard-core Communist prisoners now detained on the remote is’ . of Buru, some 2000 miles east of Jakarta, according to the chief of the State Security Agency (Admiral Sudomo).