An article in the net version of the Washington Post today puts a new twist
on the East Timor situation. Is this a new version of the Indonesian
"Official Line" or something with some validity?
Extract from Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/indonesia/indonesia.htm
>The declaration came as diplomats and other analysts here said they had
>received evidence that thousands of Indonesian troops and policemen native
>to East Timor had deserted their units and were joining with the
>pro-Indonesian militias in their bloody campaign against the independence
>movement.
>"It's a mutiny-like situation," said a Western military analyst. "You've
>got a breakdown of command and control and a lot of desertions."
>Analysts said the desertions raised questions about whether Gen. Wiranto,
>commander of the Indonesian armed forces, could be orchestrating the
>mayhem, or, perhaps more worrisome, whether he had lost control of the
>army. The government of President B.J. Habibie announced Monday that it
>had rejected a proposal by Wiranto to institute martial law in East Timor,
>so the overnight turnaround led many here to wonder exactly who is in
>charge in Indonesia - Habibie or Wiranto.
>The mounting bloodshed in East Timor, and the involvement of large numbers
>of soldiers and policemen, seemed likely to damage Indonesia's
>international image just as the country was hoping to show the world it
>had shed its authoritarian, sometimes brutal past and was ready to join
>the community of democratic nations.
>"This is bad not only for Timor but Indonesia as a whole," said a Western
>diplomat in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. "If these dark forces can
>take over in Timor, can they do the same here?"
>In an apparent effort to counter such perceptions, the Jakarta government
>this morning freed the jailed leader of the East Timorese independence
>movement, Xanana Gusmao, a 53-year-old Jesuit-trained
>poet-turned-guerrilla who has been widely expected to become the first
>president of an independent East Timor.
>Gusmao, who has been seen as a voice of moderation and conciliation in his
>homeland, served six years of a 20-year sentence - the last seven months
>under guard at a government guest house. His intentions were not
>immediately clear. In a brief statement after his formal release at the
>Justice Ministry, he declared only: "I promise as a free man I will do
>everything I can to bring peace to East Timor."
>The government had initially wanted to send Gusmao directly to Dili, East
>Timor's capital, but his supporters rejected that proposal, saying it
>amounted to a virtual death sentence since the anti-independence militias
>control the streets. He has been offered asylum in the United States and
>Australia, but his lawyers said the resistance leader had not yet decided
>what course he will take.
>The violence gripping East Timor has shattered a U.N.-sponsored peace plan
>for the territory just a week after voters there overwhelmingly rejected a
>referendum on autonomy, opting instead for independence from Indonesia.
>The United Nations now has no presence in the Western part of the
>territory, half its staff is being evacuated, and most of those who remain
>are barricaded in their compound, unable to venture outside.
>In Dili, well-armed militiamen fired into the International Red Cross
>compound Monday, shot at the Australian ambassador's car and burned down
>the home of the city's Roman Catholic archbishop and spiritual leader,
>Carlos Belo, the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Belo was not harmed and
>was taken by police helicopter to the eastern city of Baucau, to the home
>of fellow Bishop Basilio de Nascimento, who described Belo as in "a state
>of shock."
>The death toll from the rampage was believed to be in the hundreds, and
>one diplomat here said she had heard reports of bodies being dumped into
>mass graves across the territorial border in West Timor, which is part of
>Indonesia. Among those targeted for execution were well-known independence
>leaders, according to diplomats and other sources.
>"In Atambua [in West Timor], we have heard reports that many people are
>being killed, and big holes are being dug to bury them," said Ana Gomes,
>who heads the Portuguese consulate here. The reports could not be
>independently verified, as most journalists and other international
>officials have left the territory.
>"This is a nightmare," Gomes said. "This is as bad as the things we had in
>Rwanda" during the 1994 massacre of Tutsis by Hutu militants.
>An estimated 6,000 East Timorese serve as troops and noncommissioned
>officers in the Indonesian armed forces in the territory - including two
>all-Timorese battalions. In addition, about 1,000 East Timorese serve in
>the national police force in Timor, according to military analysts. Most
>of these soldiers and police officers are said to have mutinied and to be
>responsible for much of the current mayhem.
>Diplomats, U.N. officials and other foreigners in East Timor have reported
>seeing policemen and army troops firing on vehicles and openly assisting
>the anti-independence militias. Until Monday, diplomats and others had
>said they were unable to confirm that any troops had deserted their units.
>
>Wiranto has said he is sending three more army battalions to East Timor to
>help quell the violence, which erupted Saturday after the results of the
>Aug. 30 referendum showed that an overwhelming 78.5 percent of East
>Timorese voters had chosen not to remain part of Indonesia.
>Some of those troops have already arrived, but diplomats there said that
>the soldiers, many of them Javanese, have found themselves outnumbered by
>the East Timorese mutineers and that there already may have been clashes.
>"We've already heard reports of soldiers shooting soldiers," a Western
>military analyst said.
---------end of extract-------
The Washington Posts coverage is very different from that in other places
(with a very conservative reading of the original cause of the conflict -
It sees the events of 1975 as a result of conflict between "Marxist and
anti-marxist factions" for example and other reports have suggested that
most of the soldiers and police in place earlier were Javanese rather than
Timorese. If, however, this is a new "official line" from the Indonesians
then it suggests a face saving exercise in the event of a UN force going
in.
Cheers
Rod
Rod Hagen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia
WWW http://www.netspace.net.au/~rodhagen
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