Subject: AFP: Nobel laureate presides over peace
service in Dili
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 11:20:34 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Nobel laureate presides over peace service in Dili
DILI, East Timor, May 12 (AFP) - Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo held a mass
"prayer for peace" attended by Indonesian soldiers here Wednesday, three days
after violent pro-Indonesian militia attacks wracked the city.
After the service, at which Nobel peace laureate Belo said the violence had been
"perpetrated by East Timorese themselves and soiled the name of peace," military
chief Colonel Tono Suratman said he was set to start disarming the feared pro-Indonesian
militia.
"Tomorrow we will make a sweep to take the home-made weapons" from the
militia at Liquisa town, Suratman, who was dressed in civilian clothes for the service,
told journalists.
He said the military would deliver an ultimatum to the militia at Liquisa, some 50
kilometers (30 miles) from Dili.
"If they don't, -zzzt," he said, making a gesture as if shooting someone in
the head.
But the colonel said he would not take journalists with him on the trip to Liquisa, the
stronghold of the military-backed Besi Merah-Putih (Red and White Iron) militia, who were
heavily involved in the Dili attacks.
Diplomats and journalists who witnessed the attacks said the Indonesian military and
police did little to nothing to stop them and were seen in places with the militia.
The Red and White are also blamed for the massacre of some 25 unarmed refugees in
Liquisa last month, after which Belo broke off church mediated talks between
pro-independence and pro-Indonesian factions in East Timor.
The United Nations has pledged under a landmark agreement signed by Portugal and
Indonesia last week to provide civilian police security for East Timorese to choose
between independence and remaining under the Indonesian flag.
But the vote on independence or autonomy, scheduled for August 8, will only take place
if the security situation permits.
Suratman said under the agreement the Indonesian army would "stay in their
barracks and in the districts and only give help in the districts" if it was needed
in the runup to the poll.
"It is not my (the military's) job, it is the police's job," he said.
"Since a week already they (the UN police assessment team) have already been
travelling... to make contact with the local police."
"They (the UN police advisers) will not have guns. The (Indonesian) police will
protect them," he added.
But he said the army could help the police in disarming both sides.
During the service Belo did not mention the pro-Indonesian militia who launched the
attacks.
But afterwards the 1996 Nobel peace prize laureate told journalists: "I hope some
day the militia and the Falintil (the armed wing of East Timor's independence movement)
will also attend."
"We are trying to find peace. Maybe with our prayers our people can sit down and
start talks for peace, not for violence," he said.
The service, which Suratman said would be followed by one on Thursday and another on
May 19, ended with the some 600 Christians, Moslems and Hindus present in the hall -- an
indoor basketball court -- crying out "Welcome peace" repeatedly and shaking
hands with one another.
Before leaving, the Indonesian police chief for East Timor Colonel Timbul Silaen
challenged a western journalist who asked if the police felt they could keep the peace for
the poll by saying: "You have to restrain yourself from writing too -- don't say
there are 100 dead when there is one dead."
Journalists were stoned and threatened with pistols by the militia during the attacks
Monday and Tuesday.
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