Al Jazeera on Timor-Leste
Al Jazeera has just done a piece on justice issues in Timor-Leste. It's nothing new really, but interesting to see the country getting a bit of attention outside of the Aussie press. The issue of justice has been the same since independence. Ramos-Horta and Xanana favour amnesties, civil society groups and victims want justice. Nine years after independence and the narrative presented to the people of Timor-Leste is one that implies it was mostly Timorese fighting other Timorese in 1999, negeclecting the fact that it has been proved beyond doubt that what happened in Timor-Leste was part of a systematic programme of terror. It was orchestrated from above, and yet the big fish have never been held accountable because the international community hasn't been able to see past the Cold War and the War on Terror, both of which supposedly required an on-side Indonesia.
It's a great shame. The Special Panels in Dili and the ad hoc trials in Jakarta were done so half-heartedly that they may as well have not been done at all. The Indonesian trials were always going to be a sham and the ones in Timor-Leste were under-resourced, closed down too soon and ultimately pointless because Ramos-Horta pardoned everyone. The trials in Timor-Leste could also only go after Timorese people, which adds to the narrative that it was simply a spontaneous civil war in 1999. And as for the other 20-odd years, well, there won't be any trials for crimes during that era, nor for the killings committed from 1974-76 as the Timorese fought against each other for power.
It's all very well to forgive, but we mustn't forget that the crisis of 2006 really should never have happened and it only did happen because the political elites saw nothing wrong with playing dirty, outside of the political arena, to achieve their goals. Where was the rule of law for that crisis? Or for the February 2008 ambush that nearly killed Ramos-Horta and led to yet more pardons?
So with that in mind, it feels a little off for Al Jazeera to give former militia leader Eurico Guterres a platform for him to tell a little sob story about how hard done by he is. Here's a man who has done terrible things.
On 17 April 1999 he was recorded on national and international television as inciting his own and thousands of other militiamen from every district in East Timor gathered in a rally of 3-5000 to kill pro-independence supporters. The rally, to launch an anti-independence 'cleansing' campaign in Dili, was attended by the governor and all top government and military officials in East Timor. At this rally Eurico Guterres was made deputy commander of the combined pro-integration forces PPI (Pasukan Pro-Integrasi), a military-backed umbrella grouping of militias nominally led by Joao Tavares.
He delivered an inflammatory speech urging his men to 'capture and kill if you need' those who had 'betrayed integration'. He singled out the family of former parliamentarian Manuel Carrascalao as 'traitors'. He concluded by stating that I, Eurico Guterres, 'will take full responsibility'. He then led one group of militia men and TNI members on a rampage around Dili, resulting in thirteen deaths.
The group first destroyed property at the houses of three independence supporters. Manuel Pinto died in the third of these attacks, in which Eurico participated.
At about 1pm, still led by Eurico, the group arrived at the house of Manuel Carrascalao, located next door to Eurico Guterres' Gardapaksi (later Aitarak) Dili headquarters. Other militia members had gathered outside it earlier, and inside were about 100 pro-independence refugees. Sensing the impending attack, Carrascalao and his daughter Christina had appealed for protection directly to East Timor military commander Col Tono Suratman but the latter did not respond. Carrascalao then appealed to some armed Brimob policemen, who also refused to act immediately.
