| Subject: Fwd: Dili's
Traitor Risks Return to His Own The
Australian 6 Nov 99
Dili's traitor risks return to his own
By PAUL TOOHEY
WHEN former enemies gather in East Timor, chairs are
grabbed, cigarettes passed around and coffee is served.
Paolo P. Araujo is a 43-year-old East Timorese who was,
until recently, a TNI (army) chief-sergeant intelligence officer selling his own people up
the river to his Indonesian bosses.
On September 8, he took his service pistol and hand-radio
and surrendered to Falintil.
In choosing not to leave East Timor with his army comrades,
Mr Araujo has gambled dangerously. He has put himself at the mercy of people who remember
him as a mean-mannered soldier and spy who loitered on his motorbike in public places,
making lists of names and conducting street-side inquisitions.
In recent days, the wide-smiling Mr Araujo has been
receiving small delegations of curious East Timorese men who just want to hear him explain
himself.
"Look how nice he is," said my translator, Jules.
"As an activist, I remember how scared I was of him."
Mr Araujo said he had stayed behind because he felt he
"must be here, with the East Timorese".
Mr Araujo's guests quietly disagreed with him, suggesting
the truth was more likely that, as an East Timorese who spied on East Timorese, Mr Araujo
had served out his usefulness to the Indonesians.
And as a chief-sergeant who had earned only Rp 1,200,000
(approximately $40), he knew his pay was never likely to improve outside East Timor.
Besides, did he not own this, his own house in Dili? Would
he ever get the chance to own another home in some other part of Indonesia? But most
crucially of all, he had a step- brother in Falintil who he hoped could argue for lenience
on his behalf. Correct?
Mr Araujo nods. "As a Timorese, I worked for the TNI
to fulfil my life," said Mr Araujo, "but I never did bad things to people."
Mr Araujo said he had been with the TNI since 1978.
"My specific job was as an intelligence officer," he said. "We mainly had
to get information about Falintil. If they were found to be activating against the
Government, I would report it."
Mr Araujo agreed he was well-known to the East Timorese as
a TNI yes-man. "Probably I'm famous in a bad way," he said. "But now I will
give myself back to the population to evaluate my work with the TNI. I will be ready to
receive any punishment. If one day we establish our nation and I am assessed as a
criminal, so be it."
He said the TNI tortured people "always", but
such scenes were withheld from Timorese-born TNI such as himself. "My guns never
killed anyone," Mr Araujo said.
With the last of the TNI now gone from East Timor, Mr
Araujo feels confident enough of his own conscience or perhaps the influence of his
stepbrother to remain visible in Dili.
"Falintil knows him, he's not going anywhere,"
said one of the men.
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