---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Australian Broadcasting Corp. Tuesday, August 24, 1999 Dispatches: Recollections of East Timor - 1975. There's just one week to go before the people of East Timor choose between autonomy within Indonesia and complete independence. But one Australian with a long connection to the territory has returned after 24 years. In the 1960's Jim Dunne served as the last Australian consul to what was then Portuguese Timor. He returned to the territory shortly before the Indonesian invasion of 1975, as a member of an official Australian fact finding team. Jim Dunne, who has been a vocal critic of Australia's acceptance of the Indonesian annexation of East Timor, spoke to Di Martin upon his return at Dili airport. DUNNE: It's really absolutely extraordinary. I feel all sorts of butterflies because I left Timor in the most depressing circumstances, almost 24 year's ago. MARTIN: Can you tell us about that time? DUNNE: Well, Fretilin was in administrative control of East Timor. There was no civil war but nevertheless the Indonesian military assault had begun. MARTIN: Was this when Indonesia was invading East Timor? DUNNE: That's right. But this is actually before the formal invasion. A lot of people forget that it was actually invaded before the 7th of December 1975. But for the Timorese it was inevitable, Indonesia was coming and there was some bombing, not all that far from Dili, now and then we could hear the sound of shells. At night time on occasion there were attacks over Dili. In the house next to the hotel there were lots of refugees, you could hear the children crying and mothers crying. It was a very depressing experience. But what was most depressing for me is that although I'd sent all sorts of messages urging Australia to get together with Indonesia to stop this and to look for an alternative means to sort of fulfill Indonesia's national concerns about the situation and to get the U-N involved, nothing much was happening. And for me the most unforgettable experience was when I left, because I went to say goodbye to people and their eyes bored into mine. "We know you will help us", because I'd been Consul and I was head of the mission at that time. "We know you'll help us, you will stop them won't you, the U-N will help us, won't they?". It was very traumatic because I knew that wasn't going to happen. MARTIN: Have you been living with that for the last 24 years? DUNNE: I've been living with something worse, much worse. There was a girl who came through the crowd and put her arms around me - Cecilia. When I had been Consul ten year's earlier there was a small family opposite. I've always liked children, I used to invite them in once a week. I made ice cream. They didn't have ice cream in Dili in those days. My sister sent a receipe with powdered milk and I'd occassionally take them the the beach with me. Cecilia was a very quiet, very shy girl of about 11. Here she was I suppose 21 in a nurse's uniform and she said "I'm at the hospital on the ambulance, tell me are the Indonesians coming? What do I do?". I said Cecilia "always have your Red Cross on whenever you're near the ambulance. If troops turn up go and put your hand on the Red Cross, on the ambulance and stay there." Well later, not all that long later I heard that she came down the road in the ambulance where some people had been injured and at the same time some troops came along and she raced and put her hand on the Red Cross and they machine gunned her. And that more than any other single incident haunts me, and will haunt me to the end of my life. MARTIN: It's taken 24 years for the U-N to provide some assistance to the East Timorese, how do you think the vote is going, what kind of result are you expecting? DUNNE: I am cautiously optimistic. I am cautiously optimistic in relation to the vote. I mean I don't think it will be entirely free and fair, but let's face it, in any third world situation almost, no first election is. MARTIN: So you don't think that the militias albeit backed by the military are going to scuttle the vote? DUNNE: I don't think so. I think they are a bit counter-productive because by using militia gangs, I mean obviously to many Timorese who might have been thinking well maybe it's alright to stay this way after all this time, or maybe we better do it because if we don't do it we will be invaded again. I think now to them it means that, but if we go for autonomy, presumably these people will be among those who are ruling. MARTIN: So a counter-productive move by the Indonesian military to employ the militias? DUNNE: I think it's been utterly counter-productive. MARTIN: So 24 years on do you think you can finally play a part in the wishes that were expressed to you as you had to leave East Timor back in 1975? DUNNE: Well I suppose to be realistic I guess I am in a way doing the same thing. Back in 1975 I was observing, with not a great deal of personal power and I think it's a big challenge to the Timorese and to Indonesia. I am confident they can do it. It's just that right now it's a very difficult time because we've had elections in Indonesia but with this kind of vacuum until November, until the new government emerges, and I think the new government once it's addressed the issues and the options opened to us, I think there's a good chance that it will go the right way. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 24 Aug 1999 jam 12:22:29 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
