EAST Timor guerrilla leader, Mr Konis Santana, yesterday offered Indonesia a ceasefire in the disputed territory, providing Jakarta met conditions that included a halt to migration and a cut in its military presence.
"If Indonesia agreed to freeze the ceaseless migration of its nationals to East Timor, and reduced its military personnel in East Timor, the guerrillas of Falantil would declare an indefinite ceasefire," he told Portugal's TSF radio.
The guerrillas have made such offers in the past, but they have always been rejected.
Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, this day 21 years ago. Its rule has never been recognised by the United Nations. Opponents frequently accuse Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim state of encouraging migration to the largely Catholic East Timor to tighten its hold over the territory.
The offer of a ceasefire comes just four days before two East Timorese rights activists receive the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo. They are Bishop Carlos Belo and Mr Jose Ramos Horta, spokesman for jailed East Timor resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao.
Mr Santana took over as head of Falantil after Mr Gusmao's capture by Indonesian forces in 1992. Jakarta has spurned his past offers of a conditional peace saying that it will only accept a complete surrender.
The Indonesian army said recently that the number of guerrillas operating in the hill's around the capital, Dili, had dwindled to less than 100, against some 200 earlier in the year. But it calculates that the guerrillas can call on a 3,000 strong clandestine net work of supporters around Indonesia.
Indonesia, and Portugal have been holding periodic meetings under the auspices of the UN to seek a solution to the question of East Timor. But there has been little progress.
. The sister of Mr Xanana Gusmao Armandina, has been stopped by Indonesia from taking up an invitation to Oslo for the presentation of the Nobel prize, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported.