Subject: SMH: Photos reveal violent history
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 11:40:11 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Sydney Morning Herald 26/05/99
EAST TIMOR Photos reveal violent history
By MARK DODD, Herald Correspondent in Dili
Ilidio Gusmao's photograph album is not your normal fare of happy snaps. Mr Gusmao is
chairman of the Baucau branch of the Catholic Peace and Justice Commission.
The identity of one man in his album is proving particularly problematic - the man in
question has no face. Under torture his face was physically removed before his agonising
death in March this year. He is thought to be a pro-independence supporter but the
identity of his interrogators is unknown.
Case Two. On May 19, four men believed to be members of the elite Kopassus special
forces unit entered a house in Baucau and began beating a man later identified as Sergeant
Louis Da Costa, formerly of Battalion 745.
His wife ran to get help but not before her husband was dragged outside and fatally
shot with a semi-automatic pistol, execution-style to the back of the neck. Da Costa may
have been linked to an earlier violent incident involving members of his old battalion who
engaged in a shootout with Kopassus soldiers in Baucau on May 13.
Inter-service rivalry and allegations of mistreatment by a Kopassus informer who tried
to order a group of Battalion 745 soldiers off the roof of a minibus are believed to have
triggered that incident.
Violence, whether politically inspired or simply criminal, is commonplace in East Timor
- arguably one of the most lawless territories in South-East Asia.
While pro-Indonesia militia violence has been increasing in recent months, two
pro-Indonesia paramilitary groups in Baucau have successfully prevented incursions by the
hardline Dili-based Aitarak (Thorn) militia, according to Mr Gusmao.
Tim-Serah, which comprised former pro-independence defectors, and Tim-Saka, which
worked closely with Kopassus special forces, had physically intervened to prevent Aitarak
militia activity, forcing Aitarak leader Mr Eurico Guterres to travel by army helicopter
on visits to nearby Viqueque district.
Both groups trace their roots back to two 1970s political parties, the pro-Indonesia
Apodeti and Timorese Democratic Union (UDT).
Apparently Mr Guterres' creed of radical firebrand politics is not welcomed by more
moderate autonomy supporters in Baucau, said Mr Gusmao.
One respected Dili-based human rights group, Yayasan Hak, estimates more than 100
people, mostly pro-independence supporters have been killed in political violence since
January.
"The human rights situation is not satisfactory because it seems to be an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Who causes it and why does not count, it just
exists," said Mr Soli Sorabjee, a UN Commission for Human Rights envoy and former
Indian attorney-general who arrived at the weekend.
An Indonesian initiative for a Commission for Peace and Stability comprising
pro-independence and pro-autonomy supporters, government officials, police and army
officers, has failed to get up and running.
The reason - there are no pro-independence supporters confident enough to come out of
hiding. So violence and killings continue. On Tuesday the Voice of East Timor newspaper
reported the discovery of a headless and legless body of a police sergeant at a beach near
Liquica, 30 kilometres west of Dili.
Police identified the man as Second Sergeant Alberto Oliveira. He had been returning to
Liquica by motorbike accompanied by his 13-year-old nephew who remains missing.
Pro-independence fighters have been blamed for the assassination of a 65-year-old
coffee farmer and staunch pro-autonomy activist, Mr Boaventura Dos Santos, killed on
Monday.
At midday yesterday, mourners gathered in the Dos Santos house, a small concrete
cottage with a rust-streaked corrugated iron roof.
Inside the dark, unlit room women in black cried and children stared in silence. A
large wooden crucifix lay next to the bedside table. Outside the house the silence was
suddenly broken with the arrival of five schoolgirl mourners chatting, innocently unaware
of the solemnity of the occasion. They were carrying sprigs of purple bougainvillea.
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