http://www.feer.com/_0009_21/p16region.html
Issue of September 21, 2000
TIMOR
Jakarta's Shame
Indonesia takes the blame as militiamen in West Timor
murder three aid workers and drive the UN out of the province's
refugee camps
By
John McBeth/JAKARTA and Michael Vatikiotis/WASHINGTON
Issue
cover-dated September 21, 2000
IT WAS A HUMILIATING moment for Abdurrahman Wahid. At the United Nations'
Millennium Summit in New
York, the Indonesian president stood with 154 other world
leaders as
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked for a minute's silence in
memory of the Puerto Rican, Ethiopian and Croatian aid workers
butchered in a September 6 attack on the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees compound in the small West Timor town of Atambua.
With the eyes of the world focused on Indonesia's failure to deal
with its side of the Timor problem, Wahid's response has been to
blame the international community for not providing enough
assistance--or simply to try to redirect attention.
Following the attacks, Wahid was subjected to a litany of outrage
from Annan, U.S. President Bill Clinton and other leaders. In a
testy meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in
which Albright berated Wahid for his failure to control the
militias
responsible for the killings, he responded by reminding her he
had been swamped with pleas to help resolve international conflicts from
the Middle East to Kashmir. He made the same boast in a gathering
the next day at Columbia University in New York, where he received
an award for his "lifetime contribution to humanity."
A human-rights official in New York says that though Wahid
handled the criticism well, "you didn't get the sense he really
knows what's going on" in West Timor.
Barely 48 hours after Wahid arrived in New York, machete-wielding
militiamen hacked to death the three UN workers, burning their
bodies in the street as seemingly outnumbered soldiers and
policemen
looked on. The next day, eight people were killed in fighting
between local villagers and militiamen outside the Betun refugee
camp, south of Atambua. As the worst case of violence between
locals
and militiamen so far, that incident was yet another sign of
rising
social tensions across West Timor.
For months now, UN peacekeepers have warned that the Indonesian
government's failure to assert its authority has put the
province of
West Timor in increasing danger of falling under militia control.
Annan and U.S. and European leaders have pressed Jakarta for
much of
this year to rein in the militias; at the summit, the UN Security
Council called on Indonesia to immediately disarm and disband
them.
But a Western military officer who toured the West Timor border
region a fortnight before the Atambua attack told the REVIEW:
"The Indonesians just haven't provided the resources the
problem needs. There doesn't seem to be the will to do
anything."
Says a Jakarta-based ambassador: "We just can't understand
why the government is allowing one of its own provinces to be
subverted." Wahid's weak civilian government, a yawning
leadership gap in the Indonesian armed forces, and support for the
militias from active and retired military figures are all
blamed for
Jakarta's failure to impose effective control.
The mayhem was sparked by the September 5 slaying of militia
leader Olivio Moruk, who was decapitated and castrated in Betun
just
a week after Indonesian prosecutors named him as one of 19 people
suspected of human-rights abuses in East Timor. Indonesian
officials
claim he was the victim of a local dispute, but the timing
suggested
other motives: He was killed exactly one year after his militiamen
allegedly slaughtered 200 independence supporters in a church
in Suai, on East Timor's southwest coast. Was it revenge or were some
of his former military backers enforcing a code of silence?
Only last month, Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab said he
needed three to six months to close the camps and put a lid on the
problem. Since then, little has changed. Two Indonesian infantry
battalions are strung out along the 170-kilometre border trying
to prevent 200 hard-core militiamen crossing into East Timor. The
security forces have done nothing, however, about the militias'
control of the refugee camps or their intimidating acts in other
parts of the province, including Kupang, the West Timor capital.
Little wonder, perhaps. Eurico Guterres, the leader of the
Aitarak militia, which was blamed for some of the worst atrocities
in East Timor after the UN-supervised vote on independence last
year, now heads the West Timor paramilitary youth wing of the
Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle, headed by Vice-President
Megawati Sukarnoputri. Two months ago, Guterres was seen dining
with
disgraced former special-forces commander Lt.-Gen. Prabowo
Subianto in Kupang, suggesting continued military collusion with his militia.
Western intelligence agents have seen Prabowo in Kupang three
times
this year, most recently on August 31.
Megawati, a fervent nationalist, sided with the military over the
East Timor issue. She also enjoys good relations with former
armed-forces commander Gen. Wiranto, who may yet face trial for
failing to stop the militia rampage in East Timor last year that
left more than 1,000 people dead.
In a poignant example of just how much Jakarta has lost control
in West Timor, regional commander Maj.-Gen. Kiki Syahnakri
dispensed
with time-consuming clearances and gave the go-ahead for three
armed
New Zealand helicopters carrying special-forces troops to evacuate
55 UN and other aid workers trapped in Atambua hours after the
militia attack. Given the strained relations between Indonesia and
the UN authority in East Timor, this was an extraordinary move.
In New York, Wahid asserted the murders were committed to
embarrass him, and ordered troop reinforcements into West Timor
"to help control the situation." But he expressed no
regret over Indonesia's failure to act against the more than 2,000
militiamen in West Timor, and said it would take money from the
international community to resettle them in other parts of
Indonesia.
New Coordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs
Bambang Yudhoyono, who in a recent published interview did not
mention West Timor as being among his priorities, has since
promised
to restore security and order. He didn't say what he would do
about
the militiamen, all of whom were originally armed and trained
by the
Indonesian military. By mid-week, Jakarta was moving at least
three
army battalions of up to 800 men each into the province.
Now that UN agencies are refusing to return until the militias
are removed, aid workers worry about the spectre of famine and the
possibility of refugees going on the rampage in search of food. UN
officials estimate that 60,000-70,000 refugees would return to
East Timor if they were permitted to do so by the militias.
The rest of the refugees include 2,600 former East Timorese
soldiers, 8,000 ex-civil servants and their families who would
lose
their Indonesian pensions if they returned, and others who have
been
won over by militia propaganda, which teaches camp residents
that UN
workers will rape female returnees and use the men as forced
labour.
Senior UN military sources in Dili told the Review that militia
recruitment in the camps has in fact accelerated in the past two
months.
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