Subject: CNS: E. Timorese bishop threatened by
pro-Indonesia militias
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 21:59:24 +1200
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>E. Timorese bishop threatened
by pro-Indonesia militias
By Stephen Steele
Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS)
Pro-Indonesia militias have threatened the life of Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of
Dili, East Timor, said sources working in the territory. A church source notified Catholic
News Service by e-mail that a flier has been circulated in East Timor carrying a death
threat against Bishop Belo, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and several priests. According
to the source, the flier addressed the bishop directly: "Be careful. For now your
robe is white, but one day, it will be stained with your own blood." Bishop Belo
confirmed by fax Aug. 23 the existence of the document, which was written in the Bahasa
Indonesian language. He emphasized that the entire church in East Timor has been
threatened by the militias, which favor the territory's autonomy under continued
Indonesian rule. East Timorese were to vote on autonomy in a U.N.-monitored referendum
Aug. 30. Indonesian President B.J. Habibe has said if the voters reject autonomy,
Indonesia would consider granting the territory independence.
"We really have to get peace-keeping forces in here," the bishop said,
repeating a request he has made for several months. Catechists and church workers have
been killed and attacked throughout the territory in recent weeks, he added. On Aug. 8, a
catechist was killed near Liquisa, the site of an April massacre of at least 25 people
inside a church. This was followed by the killings of two student organizers from an
electoral monitoring group supported by the Irish Catholic aid agency, Trocaire, the
bishop said. Also in early August, members of the Brothers and Sisters in Christ religious
community who were delivering emergency food provisions to displaced Timorese in Maubara
were ambushed by pro- Indonesia militias, said Bishop Belo. The militias threatened the
church workers with guns and took the emergency food, the bishop said. "Every day
there are provocations. The violence continues. We hope that on the 30th, they won't
sabotage the vote," the bishop said Aug. 19 in a statement released by his
biographer, Arnold Kohen, a consultant for the Office of International Justice and Peace
at the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and unilaterally annexed it the following year.
Neither the United Nations nor the Vatican has recognized the annexation, and most
countries still view Portugal as territorial administrator. Thomas Quigley, policy adviser
on Asian affairs for the USCC, said the threat against Bishop Belo was reminiscent of the
threats made against Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who was assassinated while
celebrating Mass in 1980. "Anti-Romero fliers were circulating the streets of San
Salvador the week before Romero was killed. The two incidents are very similar," he
said. Quigley is expected to be in East Timor Sept. 2 as part of a USCC delegation that
includes Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., and Bishop John S. Cummins of
Oakland, Calif. Meanwhile, a U.S. congressional delegation visiting East Timor demanded
Aug. 23 the deployment of armed U.N. troops in the territory. Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa,
and Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, and Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., called for the action after
touring trouble spots in East Timor's western region, which has been wracked by
militia-led violence for months. The United Nations, which is supervising the ballot, has
only several hundred unarmed police advisors and military observers in the territory.
Meanwhile, attacks on churches in Letefoho and Suai, both south of Dili, were reported
Aug. 19 by Lusa, a Portuguese news agency.
Anti-independence militiamen attacked a group of independence supporters gathered at a
church in Suai, the agency reported. Officials of the U.N. Mission in East Timor tried to
reach the scene, but were turned back after their vehicle was stoned by militiamen. In
Letefoho, an anti-independence militia commander fired a shot at the parish church after
an apparent altercation with the parish priest there. On Aug. 17, the militia commander
approached the church and "insulted" Father Domingos Soares, a priest known for
his close ties to the independence movement. The commander than turned and fired a shot at
the church's facade. He reportedly fired four more shots before people intervened and
pulled the man away, Lusa reported.
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