Saudara-saudara Permias,
Tolong berita ini disebarluaskan sejauh mungkin untuk menyampaikan fakta
yang sebenarnya di Timtim melawan berita-berita yang disebarluaskan oleh
"musuh-musuh" Bangsa Indonesia.
Terima kasih.
Salam
Mahendra
The Guardian
No evidence so far of mass killings
Maggie O'Kane in Dili
Friday September 24, 1999
Horror stories of mass executions in East Timor, including the murder of
almost 100 priests and nuns by the military and militia, have yet to be
borne out, and evidence uncovered by the Guardian in the capital
suggests that they may be exaggerated.
So far 15 bodies have been found in the capital Dili, which has a
population of 130,000, and another three on the outskirts of the city,
the United Nations says. However, 30,000 people are hiding in the hills
above the city and have yet to come down to tell their story. The extent
of the killing outside the capital is also unknown.
Yesterday the head of the British forces, Brigadier David Richards, when
asked about evidence of mass killings, said: "The bodies would have been
all over the place. I haven't seen evidence of that."
In three days of investigation in Dili, the Guardian interviewed almost
100 refugees, only one of whom had had a relative murdered.
In an account broadcast by television networks around the world, an
Australian aid worker claimed that she had seen "bodies piled up to the
ceiling" in the cells of the Polda police headquarters, with "blood
streaming down the wall".
When the Guardian visited the headquarters yesterday, which had just
been abandoned by the Indonesian army, the cells were littered with
rotting food and rubbish. There was no sign of blood or any attempt to
clean the cells .
A second report of 20 people being murdered in the diocesan offices at
the port also appears to be untrue. While the offices were burned, there
was no blood, no evidence of charred remains and no smell of decaying
bodies.
Father Francisco, a diocesan priest at Bishop Carlos Belo's headquarters
in Dili, said that reports that pro-Jakarta militiamen had opened fire
on refugees, killing dozens of them, were also untrue. He said one man
had died at the bishop's house.
Despite reports that up to 100 priests and nuns were killed in the two
weeks after the pro-independence vote, the total number is believed to
be four. "We know three priests at Suai were killed and one priest in
Dili," Fr Francisco said.
Hundreds of refugees have been sheltered by Fr Francisco in the bishop's
garden since the referendum on August 30, but he said none had reported
mass killings or mass graves. "I have heard individual reports of a body
here and there, but none of mass killings."
As the peacekeepers fans out across the country, there will undoubtedly
be details of killings, particularly in towns like Liquica and Suai,
where the militia were reportedly most brutal. But the emerging pattern
is of people terrorised into leaving their homes rather than mass
executions.
