Subject: IFET-OP: Campaign Ends in Wave of
Pro-Integration Terror
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 19:39:59 +0800
From: Charles Scheiner <cscheiner@igc.org>International Federation for East Timor
Observer Project (IFET-OP) MEDIA RELEASE Saturday, August 28, 1999. 5:00 pm East Timor
time
CONTACT in DILI Tel: 62-390-321969 Fax: 62-390-321264 ifet@dili.wasantara.net.id
Contacts: Sabine Hammer or Russell Anderson
East Timor Consultation: CAMPAIGN PERIOD ENDS IN WAVE OF PRO-INTEGRATION TERROR
In Oecussi, Maliana, Dili, and Los Palos, Indonesian-military backed militia forces
rampage; Demonstrates need for increased international security presence.
The 14-day campaign period for the historic United Nations-run Popular Consultation
came to a bloody end Friday in East Timor. Pro-autonomy forces attacked pro-independence
groups and individuals during the final two days in Dili, while creating an atmosphere of
terror in a number of locations throughout East Timor.
The continued presence of Indonesian-backed militias throughout East Timor has created
a general feeling of fear and anxiety among the public.
The upsurge in violence over the last two days places the entire consultation process
in jeopardy. On August 24, IFET-OP wrote an urgent letter to United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan describing the pervasive fear of violence after the August 30
ballot. Many see the attacks over the last 48 hours, and the failure of the Indonesian
authorities to take decisive action to stop them, as a foreshadowing of worse things to
come. Unless the United Nations and the international community take quick and decisive
action to stem the violence, the results of Monday’s balloting will be contaminated
by fear.
The following is an account of events over the last two days that IFET-OP has
investigated.
Oecussi
This morning, the office of the pro-independence National Council of Timorese
Resistance (CNRT) was burning in Pante Makassar, in the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi
(surrounded by Indonesian West Timor). Between 6 and 7am this morning, IFET-OP members
heard continuous gunfire from militia members. Shortly thereafter, the observers saw
flames engulfing the office.
The disturbance began last night, around 11pm, as paramilitary and pro-autonomy forces
gathered for a party. About 150 militia members then proceeded to attack the CNRT office,
throwing rocks and shooting rifles into the air for about 15 minutes. There was a lull in
the violence during the early morning hours, but the attack resumed around 5am. Only
around 7am did the police begin to respond to the paramilitary violence.
The militias burned down at least 24 houses. There are at least eight people with
serious injuries, one in a coma. Many people are still missing. The local hospital
(staffed with only two nurses) is overwhelmed. Up to 50 motor vehicles were also
destroyed. As of this writing, there are 50 people seeking refuge in the police station.
Reportedly, the situation is now calm.
Maliana
Yesterday afternoon near Maliana (Bobonaro district), a convoy of pro-autonomy
supporters clashed with villagers in Memo. According to journalists interviewed by
IFET-OP, about 2,000 men armed with machetes, sticks, bows and arrow, iron bars, and 50
homemade weapons, arrived in Maliana during the day. About half of them then went to the
village of Memo. IFET-OP members leaving Memo shortly before the arrival of the convoy
passed it and observed that an Indonesian police vehicle was heading it.
The motorbikes in the convoy passed through the village, while the trucks behind them
stopped on the upper edge of the village. The occupants of the vehicles then began to
collect rocks. The villagers responded by throwing stones. The militia members withdrew.
Shortly thereafter, the police arrived and began to fire on the villagers, allowing the
militias to re-enter the village. There were more than 100 Indonesian police officers
present.
Militia intimidation and threats forced the journalists as well as a UNAMET team out of
the village. In the ensuing clash, there were at least two people killed. Eyewitnesses
report that the police shot and killed one of the deceased, and that a militia member
stabbed to death the other man. After the clash, journalists saw blood covering trails on
which many villagers escaped. At least 50 people are now missing. Also, at least 25 houses
were burnt and at least two trucks. All the village’s stores of rice were destroyed.
According to local people interviewed during prior IFET-OP visits to the village, militia
members had been making threats that they would create violence on this day.
Very worrisome is the fact that the FPDK, a pro-autonomy group, is blaming, among
others, Aniceto Guterres Lopes, the head of the East Timorese human rights group Yayasan
HAK, for the violence (Suara Timor Timur, 28 August 1999). The human rights lawyer has
come under death threats on numerous occasions and has had to go into hiding in the recent
past.
In the town of Maliana last night, paramilitary members shot in the vicinity of the
student center, Don Bosco. Students had come under threat on numerous prior occasions,
and, for this reason, had requested police protection. Between 11:30pm and midnight,
IFET-OP heard gunshots. Students fled, seeking refuge in the house of a UNAMET civilian
police officer. It took the police 50 minutes to arrive on the scene. The students had
asked for police protection because of previous threats and attacks.
Los Palos
In Los Palos (Lautem district), 10-15 militia members armed with machetes and automatic
weapons attacked and fire bombed the CNRT office late yesterday at approximately 5:30 pm.
The office was destroyed. The paramilitaries also torched an adjacent restaurant and the
public market. IFET-OP observers heard gunfire for approximately 45 minutes following the
initial attack. According to IFET-OP observers in Los Palos, it took one hour and 15
minutes for the Indonesian police to arrive on the scene, even though the police station
is located only 500 meters away from the CNRT office. It took police at least 10 ½ hours
to establish themselves at the site of the violence. Prior to the attack, the police had
maintained a presence in front of the CNRT office. For unknown reasons, the police were no
longer present at the time of the attack.
UNAMET reports that Verissimo Quintas, the liurai or traditional chief of Los Palos and
a well-known supporter of independence, died in the violence. According to an eyewitness
interviewed by IFET-OP, a machete-wielding militia member attacked Senhor Quintas, a man
in his 60s, in his home and killed him. His wife and one of his sons are missing. There
were reportedly two other killings, but the IFET-OP team in Los Palos is not yet able to
confirm this.
Dili
The wave of violence over the last 48 hours began in Dili on Thursday afternoon as
paramilitary groups rampaged through the city, attacking pro-independence youths and
foreign journalists, destroying the main office of the CNRT, and engaging in random
violence. At least 6 people died as a result. While Dili has been much quieter since then,
many neighborhoods in Dili, especially those in the eastern part of the city, remain tense
as there are fears of renewed paramilitary attacks. A large number of businesses have not
opened and hundreds of people have reportedly fled the city.
These events mark a tragic end to a two-week campaign period that has seen pervasive
intimidation and frequent outbreaks of violence. While both sides of the consultation
process held numerous peaceful campaign events, there were many areas of the territory
where pro-independence forces were not able to campaign, and/or where intimidation of
supporters of independence was pervasive.
Same
The area around the town of Same (Manufahi district) is an example of the highly unfair
context in which the campaign took place. There, the CNRT was not able to open an office,
nor to hold any public campaign events. Guilhermino Marcal, a leader of the local ABLAI
militia interviewed by an IFET-OP observer visiting from Dili, boasted that the
paramilitary group had prevented the CNRT from opening its office. He also laughed about
the recent surrendering of arms by militia groups, saying that ABLAI had only turned a few
weapons and that he himself still had ten weapons at his home. Marcal is a former
Indonesian government official, the kepala desa or village head of Holarua. Many of the
top ABLAI leaders are current or former government officials. A leader by the name of
Laurentino, for example, is the current kepala desa of the village of Grotu.
Several vehicle owners in Same reported to IFET-OP that the pro-autonomy campaign had
requisitioned all available vehicles in Manufahi district for the final day of the
campaign, August 27. The vehicle owners stated that the FPDK, a pro-autonomy group, had
asked them to register with the office, and that they felt compelled to do so for fear of
reprisals from the ABLAI militia if they did not.
The violent events over the last 48 hours and the lack of a context permitting the free
exchange of ideas and perspectives necessary for a political campaign are cause for
profound worry as the August 30 ballot rapidly approaches. The Indonesian government has
repeatedly failed to provide the level of security necessary to allow the East Timorese
people to choose their political future in a climate free from fear and intimidation. In
Same, for example, the police have taken no action against militia members even when
prodded by UNAMET civilian police and provided with convincing evidence. Alexandre, an
ABLAI member whom many eyewitnesses have identified as the perpetrator of the August 6
slashing of an elderly peasant in Same, remains free. UNAMET officials report that he has
committed two more slashings since then.
Indonesian police and government response
Although elements of the Indonesian police have been generally effective in protecting
international observers and UNAMET personnel, the police as a whole have failed to take
steps to end militia activity and to protect the general population. As Ian Martin, the
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for East Timor stated in
relation to Thursday’s violence in Dili, “heavily armed and equipped police
failed to intervene when the militia violence was carried out in front of them.”
Indonesian government spokesmen have obscured and downplayed militia violence. Dino
Patti Djalal, spokesman for the Indonesian government’s task force on East Timor, has
repeatedly asserted that the pro-independence and pro-Indonesian sides are mutually
engaged in violence and intimidation (e.g. Suara Timor Timur, 26 August 1999). This
portrayal of the violence and intimidation as the result of a mutual rivalry between two
East Timorese groups falsifies the profound imbalance of power between the groups. It is
well-documented that the militias are creatures of the same Indonesian military
responsible for protecting the East Timorese population.
Conclusions
“Unfortunately,” states Saskia Kouwenberg, Co-Coordinator of the IFET
Observer Project, “recent events demonstrate that the East Timorese people and the
international community cannot trust the Indonesian authorities to abide by the May 5
accord. Only a significant change in UNAMET’s security mandate can provide the East
Timorese with the level of security needed to realize their right to
self-determination.”
On May 17, UNAMET Spokesman David Wimhurst said “Words by the Indonesian
Government are not enough. Determined action must be taken by the appropriate Indonesian
security authorities to curtail the activities of the armed militias, whose members roam
the streets of Dili and other towns in East Timor at will, shooting citizens and burning
homes.”
More than three months have passed, and Mr. Wimhurst’s statements still apply
today. Evidence gathered by IFET-OP observers in the field, as detailed above, presents an
irrefutable case that the Indonesian Government has not met its obligations under the May
5 agreements. Events over the next few days will determine the fate of East Timor, the
credibility of the Indonesian Government, the United Nations, and the international
community. The East Timorese people have shown their courage, commitment and desire to
participate in this election. But the Indonesian authorities and the international
community must create the space for that participation to be meaningful.
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