Cover
story Terror in East Timor
NCR STAFF AND WIRE
REPORTS
A dark and unsettling silence began
to fall over helpless East Timor late last week as foreigners, fearing for
their lives, fled the territory, which was being cut off from the outside world
and left to the angry wills of bloodthirsty militiamen.
The United Nations, the last foreign presence, announced it was
pulling out most of its workers because its mission was running out of food and
water, and Jakartas imposition of martial law had done nothing to stop
the slaughter.
The international diplomatic community appeared stunned and
paralyzed. The Vatican was among many nations demanding an immediate end to the
violence but helpless to stop it.
One observer group, the International Federation for East Timor
Observer Project, which had brought more than 120 volunteer observers to the
territory, announcing its departure, issued a chilling statement: We left
East Timor for safety but with tremendous sadness. The East Timorese people
have no Australia to run to, no place to hide from militia terror.
As we escaped we kept thinking of 1975, when the
international community abandoned East Timor, allowing the Indonesian military
to invade and kill 200,000 people with impunity.
In the week following the U.N.-sponsored Aug. 30 elections,
militiamen, backed by Indonesian police and military, have sent East Timor into
mayhem, burning and pillaging homes, running wild on city streets and murdering
at will. According to some reports, roads were lined with posts topped with
decapitated heads.
Refugees fleeing East Timor said tens of thousands were being
forced to leave the territory by Indonesian military. It was not clear where
they were being taken. Some reports said that up to 200,000 East Timorese had
already fled or were being forced out by weeks end.
Widespread reports of machete murders and mass killings emerged
from refugees arriving in Australia. The United Nations said it was
investigating reports that 100 people had been massacred in a church at Suai,
on the south coast of East Timor.
Militia attacked and burned the home of Bishop Carlos Bello, who
fled to Australia.
The U.N. Security Council said it could not send in a peacekeeping
force without the formal consent of the Indonesian government, which at first
denied complicity in the terror but later hinted that wayward military leaders
were possibly involved. The government sent in more military units, but the
killings continued.
Nearly 80 percent of those who participated in the election voted
for independence from Indonesia. The announcement of the results Sept. 5
sparked the most violent wave of terror.
Meanwhile, world pressure mounted on Jakarta to restore order. In
New York, East Timorese independence leader and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta
asked for a freeze on international aid and loans to Indonesia by the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The World Bank said
Indonesias handling of East Timor could affect its decision on whether to
proceed with a $300 million disbursement. Last year the World Bank lent $2.1
billion to Indonesia.
Ramos-Horta and other human rights groups also criticized the
United Nations for acquiescing in Jakartas decision to declare martial
law in East Timor.
The Clinton administration initially appeared to take a hands off
attitude, but soon joined in protesting the violence.
Senior Indonesian army officers were reported as saying the
violence stems from the hardheadedness of several generals who did
not want to let the territory go. Their reluctance, said analysts, stemmed from
the fact that the military had sacrificed lives and resources for the
territory. There was also an underlying uneasiness in the view that letting
East Timor go would set a precedent for other independence groups in other
parts of Indonesia.
Said a two-star army general: When the East Timorese voted
for independence, it was a slap in the face for Indonesia. Most of the violence
happening on the ground will have some connection to the military. There are
officers and soldiers who will want to protect the militarys interests
there. They will want to kill before being killed.
An intelligence officer, a colonel, was reported to have said that
most of the active generals were furious that President B.J.
Habibie willingly accepted the election results. He added that a
core group of senior officers wanted the president to investigate charges of
election fraud by U.N. personnel overseeing the polls.
National Catholic Reporter, September 17,
1999
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