Sydney Morning Herald September 6, 2009 - Hundreds of people lit candles and held prayers in East Timor on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of one of the worst massacres in the country's history.
Sitting stoically outside an incomplete church in the southern East Timor city of Suai, where up to 200 civilians including priests were killed on September 6, 1999, Manuel Soares prayed silently for his dead son and kidnapped daughter Juliana dos Santos, or affectionately known as Alola.
Indonesian military group Laksaur vice-commander Egidio Manek had "taken" her away as a war trophy and forced her to marry him in neighbouring West Timor, he said.
"Every month, I send her some clothing for the three children she now has," he added.
East Timor's First Lady Kirsty Sword Gusmao had named her non-profit organisation Alola Foundation in her honour.
"The people who suffered in 1999, those families won't even come to the church," Soares said.
"For the victims, everything is ruined and broken. I came here today to get away from the feeling."
The Indonesian Army and paramilitaries went on the rampage after the 1999 referendum, killing around 1,400 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to other parts of Indonesia.
Australian-led United Nations peacekeepers restored order, ending an occupation that is estimated to have claimed around 100,000 lives through fighting, disease and starvation.
Soares said all he wanted was to see the perpetrators be tried for the human rights violations that happened between 1975 and 1999, but his patience was wearing thin.
"We want justice, but it never happens. They release all the criminals and all the people who were involved in the killings," he said.
The United Nations last Tuesday had condemned the release of Indonesian former militia leader Martenus Bere, who was detained in East Timor on August 8, five years after being indicted for his role in the 1999 Suai Church massacre.
East Timor's government has refused to confirm Bere's release but the Indonesian foreign ministry had said the man had already been moved from detention to Indonesia's embassy in Dili.
"If the government or the UN dared enough, they could go and arrest the militias," Soares said angrily.
"They are all liars. They just talk and make promises. All the organisations who claim they help victims, they are just talking and talking," he added.
East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin
ETLJB 9 April 2009 Melbourne In response to Jill Jolliffe's report in The Age on 1st April 2009, it should be noted that there were several massacres in Dili. The first occurred on 7th December 1975 when thousands of Chinese and Timorese were murdered.
A second Dili massacre took place the day after the Indonesian invasion when over a hundred citizens forced to the wharf witnessed the murders of Roger East and more than a hundred victims including Isabel Lobato and Rosa Muki Bonaparte.
Though the cemetery is in a suburb of Dili, I submit that to name it the Dili massacre marginalises all the other massacres that took place in the city during the Indonesian occupation.
See James Dunn 'East Timor a rough passage to independence' page 292 for details of massacres outside Dili.
Though I don’t suppose the demonstration at the Pope’s mass at Taci Tolu in 1989 could be described as ‘taking to the streets,’ it was an extremely courageous act since it took place in the presence of thousands of Indonesian soldiers dressed as scout masters or tourists. They were armed with cameras which they used to record the demonstrators, many of whom were subsequently disappeared. Brave Timorese youths also unfurled banners which had to be smuggled into Taci Tolu through military checkpoints. Rods designed in interlocking sections placed their carriers in particular danger.
Taci-Tolu is a place where thousands of Timorese had been butchered to the extent that people attending the Pope's mass wept as they entered the arena. ‘We are walking on the bones of our loved-ones.’
For weeks before the Pope's arrival, the site at Taci Tolu was out-of-bounds and bulldozers were observed clearing the grounds. There was much speculation about the disposal of the remains of many thousands of Timorese.
When the youths carrying the banners ran towards the dais where the Pope was standing, the batik-shirt brigade moved in and began to beat anyone who got in their way. A group of Timorese standing close to the dais saw what was happening; they found the courage to raise their fists. The cameras were adjusted to include them. Uniformed police appeared from nowhere hurling chairs and clouds of dust began to rise as if the Taci Tolu massacres were being repeated.
A hundred or so Timorese found the courage to try to help the protesters; they were beaten into the earth with riot sticks and chairs. A Filipino journalist's camera was torn from his hands and the film ripped out. I saw one man clutching his fractured jaw as a scout master continued to kick him.
A reporter from Darwin told me that when the protest began he asked his Indonesian press minder what was written on the banners. While looking straight at them, the minder had replied: ‘What banners?’
The banners read: MAUBERE PEOPLE WELCOMES PAPPA. LONG LIVE FRETILIN. VIVA FRETILIN. POPE SAVE EAST TIMOR.
The Santa Cruz massacre did not take place during a funeral procession. When a Timorese burial takes place the mourners lay the Bitter Flowers. When time has elapsed so that the grief has lessened the ceremony of the Sweet Flowers is held. On 28 October, Gomes, a student activist, had sought refuge in the church of San Antonio de Motael. He was shot in the stomach by an Indonesian soldier in front of dozens of astonished witnesses.
The laying of the Sweet Flowers for Sabastião was a commemoration of the burial that had occurred two weeks earlier. On the morning of November 12th, thousands of East Timorese marched from the church of San Antonio de Motael to Santa Cruz cemetery after attending a memorial mass for Sabastião. Marchers were harassed by police and intelligence agents, who pelted the procession with rocks. As mourners entered the Santa Cruz cemetery to lay the sweet flowers Indonesian soldiers marching slowly and deliberately fired at them at point-blank range.
As to the numbers of the dead, Max Stahl told me he saw as many as four hundred manacled, desperate Timorese being driven off after the massacre.
A Paz e Possivel em Timor-Leste (Peace is Possible in Timor-Leste) published a list of their findings into the number of massacre victims in leading Portuguese newspapers in November, 1992. Jose Ramos-Horta described how the data was obtained:
"... has been compiled by 12 teams of East Timorese students, school teachers, priests, nuns, nurses, paramedics, hospital staff, workers at the morgues, totalling 72 researchers, working round the clock for three months, interviewing household members in each bairro, immediately after 12 November 1991.”
The preliminary report reached Lisbon in February and was handed over to two specialist groups in Portugal that had been investigating human rights abuses in East Timor for more than 10 years. A copy was channelled to Amnesty International for independent verification.
It took six months for the mass of detailed information sent from East Timor to be processed and analysed. The researchers took extreme care in double-checking each piece of information."
The Lists: 271 killed; 278 wounded; 103 hospitalised; 270 disappeared.
Google's cache of http://www.etan.org/timor/
For an eye-witness report of the Santa Cruz massacre Google Democracy Now via Santa Cruz massacre.
Max Stahl’s film footage and the subsequent reporting by Americans Amy Goodman and Alan Nairn broke the backs of the Jakarta Lobbyist's compromised assurances that the Timorese fared well under Indonesian rule. When Alan threw himself over Amy in an attempt to prevent her from being assaulted by the butt of an M16 rifle being wielded by an Indonesian soldier, he took the blow intended for her, which fractured his skull.
The fact that witnesses survived the massacres in Dili is something of a miracle.
I invite valid criticism of anything I publish in the interest of accuracy.
Jakarta Post Saturday, February 21, 2009 9:41 PM Lessons from the Khmer Rouge tribunal Fitria Chairani , PHNOM PENH | Sat, 02/21/2009 1:22 PM | Opinion - On Feb.17, 2009, the ECCC (Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia) held the opening session of its first trial, the trial of Kiang Guek Eav, alias Duch. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity while he was the head of the notorious S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh.
Most victims taken to the prison during that period were tortured and forced to confess by way of electric shocks, beatings and whippings, placing bags over their heads and pouring water into their noses, before being bludgeoned to death or "smashed" in a field on the city's outskirts. Women, children and even babies were among those murdered.
Duch and four other senior Khmer Rouge cadres are alleged to be responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975-1979. The others are the Khmer Rouge second-in-command, Nuon Chea; the former foreign minister Ieng Sary; the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith; and the former head of state Khieu Samphan.
The initial hearing of the trial took two days, which mainly discussed the role of the civil parties, the admissibility of evidence and the witness lists, as well as preliminary objections brought by the defense. It was a big day for the people of Cambodia, as they saw Duch for the first time in decades (some of the victims had not even seen Duch since they were detained in S-21 prison).
Thirty years have elapsed since the occurrence of such brutality. The trial was finally set up, and showed the significant progress made toward the truth-seeking process in Cambodia upon those most responsible for committing such extreme crimes during the Khmer Rouge era.
Finally, the ECCC was established in 2003 under an agreement between the United Nations and Cambodia. Up until this present moment, the ECCC agenda is to put the above five people on trial, with the debated notion of putting more accused people on trial on the agenda. This is due to the history of such brutality, which involved more people that could be deemed the most responsible for the crimes committed.
To open such a traumatic history is not easy. This is proved by the controversy that occurred during the legal process. Conflict of interest is often raised, especially when there are many people that were involved as members of the Khmer Rouge.
In comparison, specifically with regard to the truth-seeking process, Indonesia has also been through some difficult situations in terms of conflict that could possibly be alleged as crimes against humanity, specifically on gross human rights violations. Among others are the alleged gross human rights violations in East Timor.
Although East Timor is no longer part of Indonesia, it is still part of Indonesia's history and any incident that occurred there can be deemed Indonesia's responsibility if it took place between 1974 and 1999.
Indeed, the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor, established right after the secession, successfully convicted 84 individuals and acquitted three; however that panel only had limited jurisdiction, which was to prosecute crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, sexual offences and torture committed between Jan. 1, 1999, and Oct. 25, 1999. Such a process also excluded a number of Indonesian nationals, who were allegedly involved in the atrocities.
However, in 2007, the final report by the Indonesian and East Timor Truth and Friendship Commission as mandated by the UNTAET Regulation No. 10/2001 has taken one significant step toward facing the truth. It has revealed several human rights violations committed between 1974 until 1999, including ones allegedly committed by Indonesian Military officers.
It came as a surprise when the report found that 84,200 civilians had died between the late 1970s until the early 1980s due to acts by the Indonesian Military, by the bombing of civilian territory, the destruction of food supplies, the forced movement of people away from Fretilin territory, as well as denying food supplies from international aid agencies and organizations.
Moreover, torture and execution were also reported to be repetitively conducted in an inhumane manner by incarcerating detainees without adequate food and water in pitch-dark cells, after being stripped naked and tortured continuously. There were also numbers of detainees killed after being severely beaten. Attacks on civilians were reported, with cases of short-distance shootings, grenade attacks, executions, rapes and sexual harassment, mutilations and many other extreme punishments.
In addition to that, systematic murder and forced disappearances occurred during the early Indonesian occupation, specifically during the period 1978-1979 and 1983-1984 to the people allegedly actively involved with the resistance movement. Forced movement and mass destruction occurred just before the referendum in1999, in order to secure the pro-integration position in the referendum.
These gross human rights violations must not be ignored or tolerated. As a civilized nation, one that has committed itself to the rule of law and human rights, Indonesia has undisputed obligations to act upon such violations. It has to face up to the allegation its military, police and civilian government might be "institutionally responsible" or even that some personnel are "individually responsible" for "gross human rights violations" before and after East Timor's independence referendum in 1999.
Hopefully, there will be more action taken following the commission's report, as a sign that, indeed, this nation is ready to face the truth and bring anyone responsible to justice. This does not apply only to East Timor of course, but other places of conflict such as Aceh and Papua. In this case, the Cambodian precedent of a truth-seeking process could be very useful.
The writer is currently working as a legal intern at the Office of Co-Prosecutors at the ECCC.
East Timor UC Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center - On May 20, 2005 the Special Panel for Serious Crimes (SPSC) completed more than four years of trials arising from crimes committed during the 1999 violence following the referendum in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia.
Although the work of the SPSC was cut short by a decision of the United Nations to end the UNMISET missions of which it was a part, it completed 55 trials, most involving relatively low level defendants. In the course of these trials, 84 individuals were convicted and 3 acquitted. Detailed reports about many of these cases can be found at the website of the Judicial System Monitoring Programme, which monitored the activities of the Special Panel on an ongoing basis.
By arrangement with the SPSC and its coordinating Judge, the Honorable Phillip Rapoza, the U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center agreed to provide continuing public access to electronic copies of official versions, provided by the Tribunal, of indictments, motions, and judgments from these 55 cases. Our goal is to ensure continued public access to these important records.
Serious Crimes Unit - Dili, East Timor
Prosecution Section for The Special Panels for Serious Crimes
Through a further agreement with the Deputy Prosecutor General for Serious Crimes, Mr. Carl Da Faria, the U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center also agreed to take over and maintain the website of the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU), which was responsible for prosecuting these cases.
The website ncludes a database compiled by the SCU staff that provides information on all of the cases prosecuted in the Serious Crimes process. The original files from the SPSC and SCU were handed over to the government of East Timor and it is uncertain if, when, or under what conditions public access will be provided to them. Although the last activities of the SPSC and SCU came to an end on June 30, 2005, it is vitally important to preserve the legacy of their efforts and achievements in a form easily available to researchers, practitioners, and the general public.
The trials before the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor form an important part of the ongoing global enterprise aimed at providing accountability for major violations of international humanitarian law. They also provide a cornerstone of the historical record of the 1999 violence in East Timor. Although they received scant international media attention while they were being conducted, the jurisprudence of these trials, the historical documentation they contain, and their contribution to contemporary efforts towards achieving international justice, deserve serious public attention.
Special Reports and Papers
The trial monitors and other researchers periodically produce special reports and papers providing thematically coherent, in-depth analysis. All past reports can be browsed and downloaded through the Special Reports Archive.
Current Reports on East Timor:
Indifference and Accountability: The United Nations and the Politics of International Justice Special Report (via the East-West Center website)
