A tale of two former Fretilin rebels

DILI, East Timor (JP): The Armed Forces (ABRI) is slowly winning its battle against those East Timorese still opposed to integration with Indonesia and engaged in protracted guerrilla warfare from their jungle hideouts.

The Army scored its biggest success in 1992 with the arrest of Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, the leader of Fretilin, an armed rebel organization. Fretilin's strength has since been sapped, but the few remaining rebels still pose a threat to the security in East Timor.

In ABRI's view, Fretilin does not exist, and the cause of all the trouble is the Gerombolan Pengacau Keamanan (GPK), or Security Disturbance Groups, a government term used to refer to all separatist movements, if only to deny their legitimacy as political groups.

East Timor military chief Col. Mahidin Simbolon says there are still around 185 GPK members scattered in East Timor's jungles, adding that the number is declining with arrests and surrenders.

The Army believes that most of those rebels are simple peasants who joined Fretilin out of ignorance. Very few, like Xanana, were staunchly political, they assert.

Two former Fretilin rebels currently in the hands of the Army, Geronimo Suriano Soares and Demetri Soares Martin, agreed to an interview with The Jakarta Post at the headquarters of the special military command in Dili. The two men were interviewed on July 4 in the presence of a military officer.

Geronimo is 31 and Demetri 32. Both have long hair and wear shabby T-shirts. Demetri speaks Indonesian well and helped Geronimo, who often found it difficult to express himself in Indonesian. During the interview, neither of them showed any emotion.

"I have been in military custody for two months and four days," Demetri said. He said had been with the separatist group for almost two years when he was arrested.

He used to be a cattle trader, selling cows and goats in Dili.

He said that at first he had no political motive and he joined Fretilin by accident.

It started when he quarreled with a business rival, who then filed a false report to the military that he had done something wrong. Fearing the military was coming after him, he decided to run off into the jungle.

There he met the rebels. He decided to join their cause, to struggle for East Timorese independence, and he was promised that he would become "a director general or an inspector general" once the province gained independence.

Demetri said there were 20 people in the forest. They were split into several groups, each consisting of four to five people. They were constantly on the move. "We stayed in one place for a month, or less, depending on the situation," he recalled.

To survive, the guerrillas stole food from villagers. Sometimes they took their cattle as well.

"We tried not to kill any animals or people," he said.

He admitted however that the rebels killed some villagers who were suspected of collaborating with the military.

Demetri said his group met ABRI troops four times. On two occasions they managed to avoid engaging in combat as they felt they were not strong enough to fight them. They fought the military on the two other occasions.

"I don't really know if any of the ABRI members were killed because we fired and then ran away," he said.

He said that of the 20 people in his groups, six had been killed.

Demetri said he was alone in the forest when the military captured him. Although he was armed, he did not resist arrest.

"I was too tired," he said.

Demetri said most of the rebels who are still in their jungle hideouts refuse to surrender for fear that they will be executed. "They killed many ABRI members," he said.

Geronimo had been with the Fretilin for five years when he was arrested in a forest in Fatubolu village, Ermera regency, in May.

Like Demetri, Geronimo also said he had no political motive for joining the movement.

He said he was a farmer. Five years ago, he had a dispute with his family, and some military officers came to the house to settle the row. Geronimo was so afraid that he ran away.

He met the guerrillas. He started by helping them cook and look for firewood. He said he did not have a gun "because there were only a few guns." There were eight people in his group.

Geronimo said that in May he fell sick. So he went to a villager's house to rest. The villager denounced him to ABRI and four military officers came to arrest him.

Both Demetri and Geronimo are married. Geronimo has two children. They said they missed their family and wondered why they had not come to see them.

"They know we are here because the news of our arrests spread quickly," Demetri said.

A military officer said that the two detainees would be allowed to meet their families when the time comes.

All the captured GPK members will eventually be freed after receiving some "guidance" from the military, he said.

There were four GPK members in the Dili headquarters of the special military force when the Post visited. But only two of them could be interviewed because the others could hardly speak Indonesian, according to the officer. (sim)