Interview with Morten Harket on NRK TV Morgen-nytt (morning-news).
Tuesday, September 7th 1999.
(English translation and transcript by Jakob Sekse)

Morten (MH) is interviewed by Erik Wold (EW) and Arnhild Myklebust
Eggen (AME).


AME: Morten Harket, welcome!

MH: Thank you.

AME: Or ®Good morning¯...

MH: Same to you.

AME: ...I guess it`s more appropriate at this time of day.
East-Timor... You used to be involved in that, I don`t know how it is
today, but not very much is being said about it [from your side]?

MH: Lately, you mean? Well, all in all, there has been much
[involvement from my side]. But I pulled out around the time of the
Nobel Peace Prize [in 1996], or some time prior to that, when it was
about to happen. Because the motivation...the reason why I was involved
in it was the same as it is now- I am very provoked by what`s happening
there, and has happened there since the mid-1970`s.

AME: You will have the chance to talk more about that afterwards, but I
have to ask you about that involvement...

MH: Yeah?

AME: ...you pulled out of your own involvement... or the visible
involvement...

MH: Yeah, that`s what I`m talking about. For over 20 years, the fate of
the Timor-people hasn`t been an issue at all in the western world.
Western politicians have been aware of it, but the majority of people
haven`t been aware of it, and it hasn`t been brought up in the media.
It was first in 93 that a few signals started to come, but what we are
witnessing now has been going on for 25 years. So what`s happening
today isn`t new to the people of East-Timor.

AME: But you had a visible involvement with this a period, and after
that we haven`t heard much from you about this?

MH: That`s because... I have tried to do something, based on what I
have been able to do, and it was necessary to do some lobbying to bring
this out in the public, as it is now. Now, there isn`t much [more] I
can do.

EW: So you won`t use this in order to sell more albums or because you
are Morten Harket?

MH: No, no! That`s not what I want! 

EW: And you don`t want to take the shine out of the Peace Prize-winners
either, maybe?

MH: ®Take the shine out of¯? Now, what happens when you are a
well-known person and are associated with something like this, is that
the media doesn`t present it in a reasonable way. Things are brought up
that doesn`t have anything to do with it, and beyond the point where I
could have been reasonably active, and the focus would be on my person
instead of the cause- and that isn`t in the interest of anyone
involved.

EW: But, tell me, East-Timor is located very far away... Now, we`re
hearing a lot about it in the news, we`ve heard about it in some
periods- the Peace Prize for example, and we`ve heard about it through
your involvement. But how did you find out about what was going on
there?

MH: I was contacted by... I was in Monte Carlo in early 93, in
connection with some music-stuff, and there I was contacted by a
human-rights professor from Canada who had been working with help to
East-Timor for many years. And she felt that she was getting nowhere,
there were closed doors wherever she went in the world of international
politics. So, as a last attempt, she started to approach artistes and
actors...

AME: So she was doing a little lobbying, like you have done later?

MH: Yeah, pure and simple. An unaccustomed way of working for her, but
that`s what she started doing. And that`s how I was made aware of it,
and it wasn`t possible for me- when I got to learn about the
Timor-situation- to just let it go. So when I returned home, I started
to find out things...and then my involvement in it started.

AME: When was the last time you visited East-Timor?

MH: I have never been there.

AME: You have never been there?

EW: You havent??? I thought you had! I really thought you had been
there!

MH: Uh, yeah... I guess it`s because... Why did you think so?

EW: Well, I guess it`s something about the fact that it is so far away,
and involvement, and how one can be so involved in something that`s so
far away!

MH: I wouldn`t mind going there, personally, but that wouldn`t mean
anything to the cause at all. I`m not even capable of being an
obsorvator there- something that others can do down there, so it really
wasn`t very relevant. There were plans for an international campaign
for a while, which would have implied that we had travelled to that
area... But being on Timor... I don`t have to go there to know what`s
going on, lots of information exists, that has been available to our
politicians since the invasion.

AME: Do you have friends down there, or acquaintances...?

MH: After a while, you get to know certain people, of course. But it`s
mostly Horta himself- one of the Nobel Peace Prize-winners- that I have
been in contact with the most. But during the work [with this], or
during what becomes the work... I took part in trying to make a
documentary about East-Timor, from a Scandinavian point of view. You
know, it`s interesting to see how reluctant the western world has been,
for so many years...

EW: ®Tried to make a documentary¯? So nothing came out of it?

MH: Oh yes, we made a documentary, but my part in making it was more
peripheral. I tried to do what I could do, but there are other people
who does the main work, or...most of the main work. But then I
travelled to Portugal to interview some refugees from Timor, among
other things. And then you get to know people.

EW: What are you planning to do now? You are here right now, to talk
about this, so now you are bringing your involvement in this out in the
public again. But what are your concrete plans, in this situation?

MH: Well, there`s really nothing much I can do now, other than get
provoked by what I see. But, for me... I know the history of  Timor,
and what`s happening now isn`t new to me. The difference now is that
Indonesia keeps on doing what they do, despite the fact that there are
western observators there, despite the fact that the whole western
world is witnessing this. Because earlier... Up until the Nobel Prize,
this has been happening without any attention from the outside world.
And we are hearing that hundreds have been killed now, but that isn`t
something new at all- hundreds of thousands have been killed!

AME: During a long time.

MH: Yes, during a long time. During the last 25 years.

AME: You said that there isn`t much you can do, besides getting
provoked, but is there something you are going to do now- when this is
happening?

MH: By being here and saying something about it, I hope that... I`ve
stayed out of it [for the past three years] because I don`t want to be
a figurehead for this. It`s not right to do that.

EW: But we, Norwegians, what are we going to do? Should we raise money,
or send military forces? What should we do, as a nation?

MH: As a nation? Our politicians, you mean? First of all, we must be an
active member of the UN, and make sure that the UN react in the
strongest way possible. The question the is: should the UN be a
military power?

EW: Volleb‘k [the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs] said yesterday
that one should send international military forces...

MH: If Indonesia is telling the truth, then they should invite
UN-forces down there today, because they are obviously not capable of
maintaining law and order. But few of the people who know a bit about
East-Timor think that Indonesia wants something else than what we are
witnessing now.

AME: Have you had any contact with Horta these last days?

MH: No, not lately. I don`t want to disturb him right now. Why would
I...

EW: Thank you very much for coming. You are also doing someting else
these days- you are recording a new album. But you don`t want to talk
about it until it is released?

MH: No, not in this connection.

EW: No?

MH: No.

EW: Thank you for coming, Morten Harket.