Eye witness account from East Timor

Churches: I think the protestant and catholic churches in East Timor have been targetted for a long time. And church leaders there are generally viewed (by the Indonesians) as pro-independence. I do not know why they think that, but my own analysis is that it seems to be circulated as an excuse for them to kill off the church leaders throughout the province. Because if you just kill church leaders for no reason that will create a big problem. So it is better to claim a political than a religious reason. So if they are declared to be pro-independence, then that makes them legitimate targets to be killed. But it is important in this context to understand the cultural values of the East Timorese. When they see a priest or a protestant minister, they treat him as something next to God (literally: God number 2). They are seen as someone who is holy, as someone who can ensure that they will get into heaven; they are the people most highly valued throughout East Timor. But lately I don't know what's going on-it is these same people, the catholic priests and the protestant ministers, who are now targetted. They have been cursed at, chased, and even killed. I don't understand it. It used to be that any refugees would run to the church. This is because the church was the safest place. But lately, even the churches themselves have been targetted. The churches have been targetted-an object to be trashed and destroyed. What is even more confusing is the bishop. How has it come to the point that Bishop Basilio in Baucau could be stabbed? And before that there were several priests who were stabbed, even though it only tore their robe and didn't enter their bodies. Now people can even curse the catholic priests and the protestant ministers. This is extraordinary!

Drugs: We once got ahold of one young man that we later took to the YY office to be interviewed. This young man worked at a hotel called ZZ. One time he was suddenly burst in on by several other young men. These others, by their personal grooming and posture appeared to be ABRI. They brought a bunch of pills of various sorts. The forced him to take one type of pill. Another kind they burned, and then forced him to inhale the smoke. After five minutes they gave him a knife and told him to kill people in the hotel. But perhaps they had given him too high of a dose for the size of his body, so he couldn't wake up. But then the next day he still didn't wake up, so they took him home. Two days later he began to come around, and he tried to kill all the adults in his house. So when we found this out, we brought him under 'protective custody' in the secretariat of our office, at the XXX. We asked him a bunch of questions, interviewed him, and then took him to the hospital. Apparently, according to what the doctor said, he had been given some pills for 'crazy dogs', or something. The one type of pill is commonly known as sabu-sabu, but I don't know what type of pill that is. But inside the small bag that contained the pills was a piece of paper that said 'sabu-sabu'. They say it's for crazy dogs. Now these same kinds of pills have being handed out all over East Timor, so that young people are doing things that are completely foreign to what East Timorese normally do. Their own families don't recognise their behaviour.

TAPE #1, Side B: Eurico (Guterres), the commander of the militia group (the Aitarak group in Dili), when he started attacking, the first person he killed was his very own uncle, his mother's brother. He claims he killed him to show the members of his group that the goals of the militia were more important to him than his own family. I expect the international community knows what kind of drug this 'sabu-sabu' is. I think people from the YYY office have taken the packaging for this drug outside the country. That is one of the kinds of drugs that people are being forced to take. Its smoke can also be inhaled. According to that kid that I talked to before, after you've taken this drug you have a burning desire to kill-at least one person that day. He said it's just like if you don't eat, you feel hungry. You have to kill someone. Then after you've killed someone, only then can you go home satisfied and feel you can sleep. If you haven't killed you don't feel very good. That's what this kid said. Now it is ABRI who is giving these pills out. But we don't know where they are getting their supply.

Once we caught two students from the Forum Bersama Pro-Otonomi (Joint Forum in Favour of Autonomy = pro-Indonesia group). They were from Jakarta. They brought several boxes of those pills to Los Palos (large town in the eastern tip). But when we found them we were a little slow and they escaped to Los Palos. They took that drug there and distributed it, and we didn't see them again. Things were so hot in our area that I never found out how things developed in Los Palos. By that time we were already under attack.

Q: According to what you know, which churches were burned, when, and which church leaders have been killed?

A: I am not sure of the dates, but from recent information we know that Rev. Fransisco (Ximenes de Vasconzales), the General Secretary of the (GKTT) synod, he has already been killed. But I heard by telephone last night, some of his family escaped from Dili and just showed up (in the west of the island) two nights ago. They told me that there is a good chance that my older brother Rev. XX has probably also been killed. They think that because the two of them, my brother and Rev. Fransisco were last seen together. As for a number of other protestant ministers, we have no hope for their fate. Dili is pretty small, and we know that from the place that they were hiding, there is no place to escape to. I don't know why the ministers are targets. Not all of them are necessarily pro-independence. Several NGOs are of the opinion that there is a concerted effort to eradicate or wipe out the Christians. I think that is clear. We have plenty of proof. Why are the churches being burned? Why are the ministers being killed? But the mosques aren't touched! The remaining Muslims aren't being killed. There are plenty of mosques around, but I haven't seen them being touched in all this chaos. No one is throwing stones at them. That is small but visible proof to me of the religious agenda behind this. It's not hard to figure out what's going on.

But the ABRI always uses the excuse that whatever is going on, it is the militias that are doing it. But one must understand that only a very small number of East Timorese are involved in these militias. Most of members of the militias are from ABRI, consisting of KOPASSUS (Special Forces), some from Brimob (SWAT team from the police), some regular army. I have heard that the bulk of these are Muslims. They are pretty brutal.

Getting back to East Timor to cast vote: It was very difficult to get back to Dili, but I felt burdened to go, even at great risk. I felt that I was an East Timorese who had the right to vote, and felt that it was an opportunity that was only going to happen once in my life. So I tried to get back to East Timor to vote. But as things were developing so violently, I know that if I had been by myself, I wouldn't have had the courage to go. Things were really thick at the border. But I was introduced to a group of observers from several different countries. We used a bus to go overland from Kupang. When we arrived in Atambua (town still in the west of the island, but near the border), we weren't able to continue because word had come from Dili that things had deteriorated into violent chaos around Dili. So we slept in the Polycarpus church in Atambua. When we wanted to leave early in the morning, the police wouldn't give us permission to go. So we went to police headquarters in Atambua, and requested an armed escort across the border. But they didn't want to give us an escort. They did, however, call by radio to the police posts ahead on the road to tell them to let us pass. They let us through a number of police posts before the border, but we got to the post at the border with East Timor, we were detained. My friends told them that we had already reported to the police and been given permission to pass. But they said no. They said the police in Atambua had no jurisdiction over the police in east Timor. From the border to Dili the police at this post said it was up to them whether to let us pass or not. They said we had no basis for being let through.

I was really grateful that my observer friends were bold enough to deliberately create a diversionary scene with the police. In this way they drew attention away from me. By that time there were several members of the Besi Merah Putih militia group who are known to be incredibly sadistic, who had surrounded the bus. They were looking in and beginning to see evidence that I was hiding there. But one of the observers was pretty bold and drew attention to herself. So they all started looking at her and eventually she gave them her passport that she had been holding back. They inspected it and she snatched it back, jumped back on the bus, and we started off.

After we arrived in Dili, we spent the night in a house, but the militia showed up right away. They followed us there to the house and were about to throw rocks at the house. They were going to attack the house, but we telephoned the police, and the police came, and the militia disappeared. The next day we moved to the YYY office, and that night we went to stay at a different house. At 4am the next morning we got a phone call telling us to immediately get out of that house because it was about to be attacked. An hour an a half after we left the house, they burned it down. Then I moved again to the office of BBB, and slept there. But just after I got there they told me that we had to evacuate immediately from that house because it was going to be burned. About half an hour later, but we couldn't get back there. It was already burning. Now that house belonged to the head of the protestant church of East Timor (GKTT). It was his house. It had been burned. We were hunted and hounded continually in that way. Eventually I thought of trying to get back to my family's house, but I felt really burdened about going there. I thought it might be better if I just fled into the bush/mountains. But getting there by heading inland proved impossible by any route. I knew that because I had talked it over with a number of friends. They said don't even try it. Even the American consul has been ordered to get out. So I also lost all hope of getting back to west Timor.

(Sept 5): But some of my foreign observer friends had the courage to try and get me out at risk to themselves. They hid me in their midst to smuggle me to the airport. We parked a little distance from the terminal. Several of them got off the bus to check out the situation there. But things were really difficult there because the militia had taken control of the airport and the terminal. But they didn't limit themselves to the terminal area, they were also checking inside the airplanes. They were inspecting them carefully. So we were trying to figure out a way so I could get on the plane. They took my bag on ahead and put it on the plane. Then the consul from DDD did a very clever thing. He saw groups of militia scattered around. So he arranged for the observers and reporters to split up and interview all the different militia groups standing around so their attention was diverted. So each reporter interviewed a different militia group. So after 10-15 minutes when they were fully absorbed in the interview, then the consul snuck me around the back of the terminal building into the waiting room. When I got into the waiting room they were still boarding the aircraft. The militia also went on board and inspected everyone's documents again for those already on board. When they finished, then about 10 observers stood up around me and we walked out to the plane with me hidden in the middle. I'm short compared to the rest of them, so nobody could see me from afar. They got me on board the aircraft, and then the consul got off again and called all the reporters who were 'interviewing' the militia. As soon as they got on, they immediately closed the door. After they closed the door, then we left. But we couldn't land in Kupang so we went on to Denpasar.

After I had been in Denpasar for a few days I went back to Kupang. As soon as I arrived back in Kupang, everyone told me that people had been coming to my rented room non-stop asking for me. They were also looking for me at the dorm up at the university. So it was suggested I stay at EEE's house. So I stayed there, but they kept coming to the dorm looking for me. I didn't feel safe there, so I asked people if they could get me out of Kupang. (It eventually happened and was an adventure in itself). After I arrived here, I kept telephoning back to Kupang. They told me last night that four shots had been fired at the house where I rent a room. (Another source in the neighbourhood told us they heard five shots there that night.) So I don't know if they are upset because they haven't found me, or what? Why they are shooting like that I don't understand. Maybe they are angry because they keep coming to the dorm and the house where I rent a room and never find me there.