Slain soldier's parents Timor-bound

The parents of murdered New Zealand soldier Private Leonard Manning will join Prime Minister Helen Clark at East Timor's independence.

East Timor will become independent at midnight on Sunday.

Helen Clark said yesterday that the New Zealand delegation would include Linda and Charlie Manning, Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson and representatives of Government agencies and non-governmental organisations working in East Timor.

Private Manning was shot and his body mutilated by pro-Indonesian militia in East Timor in July 2000.

His killer, Yacobus Bere, has been sentenced to six years' jail, a sentence prosecutors in Indonesia have appealed against because they say it is too light.

Mr and Mrs Manning went to East Timor last November to see the site where their son was killed. The head of the UN in East Timor had invited them back for the celebrations.

Mrs Manning said yesterday that she and her husband would meet education officials on this trip to discuss ways to use a fund they have set up in their son's memory to help East Timorese children "because he was very taken with them".

The aim of the East Timor Schools Trust is to help to provide education and training for children.

So far $7000 has been raised through a charity music concert and donations at BNZ branches.

No decisions have yet been made about how the money should be distributed.

Mrs Manning said suggestions included giving money to the small village schools near where Private Manning was based or offering senior high school students scholarships to New Zealand.

The independence celebrations start on Sunday evening.

The East Timorese flag will be raised as independence is declared after decades of struggle against Indonesian rule.

Helen Clark said it would be a "celebration befitting the birth of a new nation".

"It has been a long struggle for the East Timorese people in their struggle for the right to self-determination as an independent state.

"Sunday night's independence celebrations will be a milestone as the country ventures down the path to nationhood.

"We must not forget the many East Timorese who died and the many more who suffered in that country's long struggle to independence."

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will attend and Australian Prime Minister John Howard is also expected in Dili for the festivities.

- NZPA

Feature: Indonesia and East Timor

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