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Spring 1998 |
| Congress Bars Use of U.S. Weapons in East Timor Indonesian Military Training Continues Despite Ban Constâncio Pinto Joins ETAN Staff APECT III Meets in Bangkok ETAN Hosts Activist Training Conferences José Ramos-Horta Inspires St. Louis Activists Massachusetts East Timor Bill Update Member News Indonesia - On the verge of change? Postcard from Timor Review- Women’s Rights in East Timor U.S. Should Help East Timor Youth Resistance in East Timor Estafeta - |
ACTION ALERT UPDATE: Torture and Fear of Torture Actualized By Charles Scheiner Many hundreds of East Timorese people have been arbitrarily arrested, disappeared, or killed by the Indonesian military over the past year, as documented in the 1997 "Annual Report of Human Rights Violations" just published by the East Timor Human Rights Center (available from ETAN for $5). But rather than cite cold statistics, I thought it better to update Estafeta readers on two specific cases that we described in our last two issues: João Guterres and José Antonio Belo. Both are men in their 20s who were arrested in separate incidents in East Timor in May and June 1997. There have been no charges brought against them, neither has had legal counsel, and neither has been seen since by anyone other than their captors, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. Belo’s case was most recently highlighted as "fear of torture" by Amnesty International in an alert distributed on March 19, 1998 (case 189/97), along with four men arrested with him (Guilherme dos Santos, Manuel, Cesario or Mario da Costa and Gil da Costa).
José and João are still alive only because the Indonesian army knows that concerned people around the world know that their lives are in ABRI’s hands. To keep them alive – and to end the torture – we need to communicate our concerns more strongly. Please contact these authorities:
SEND APPEALS TO:
PLEASE SEND COPIES OF YOUR APPEALS TO:
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When our delegation was in Indonesia and East Timor in early March,
we inquired about Belo and Guterres through indirect but reliable, confidential channels.
The first reply, "they’re both alive," was only slightly reassuring.
Further explorations indicated that both were in very bad shape, still held inside East
Timor by Indonesian military forces. (Amnesty believes that Belo is in Baucau.) Both have
apparently been subjected to extensive torture and prevented from having any contact with
the outside world.