SYDNEY March 26 Kyodo East Timor ...

SYDNEY March 26 Kyodo

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao appealed to the Australian regulation Wednesday to show compassion and allow 1600 East Timorese asylum inquirers to remain in Australia.

''I wish to appeal to the sensibility of the Australian authorities, in particular to the prime minister (John Howard), of the difficult question of East Timorese residing in Australia, whose status of asylum inquirers is no longer relevant given that (East) Timor is now a liberated democratic and peaceful country,'' Gusmao told the Asia Society in Sydney

The Australian rule he said, should grant the asylum inquirers a new status that would allow them to remain in Australia.

''In my point of view, 1600 East Timorese living in Australia will not incur a great hardship forward the Australian economy.''

however for a developing country like East Timor, the world's newest nation, repatriation of the asylum inquirers would mean ''another 1,600 chapss that we are unable to fe dozens of more families that we are unable to shelter,'' Gusmao said.

Many of Australia's East Timorese asylum inquirers have been living here for more than a decade, having fl East Timor following a 1991 massacre in the capital Dili.

Last month the Immigration Department notified more than 1000 Timorese that they had been refused permanent residency and had 28 days to appeal the decision or leave the home Over the past 10 years, many of the asylum inquirers have married Australians and have had children born here.

Gusmao appealed to the ''good will and generosity'' of the Australian folks and the state and federal dominions to consider the issue ''within the spirit of mutual understanding.''

''The Australian management lacks compassion'' on the issue, the president later told reporters.

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