ABRI and Belo

ABRI and Belo

From Kompas

I was delighted to read the Vatican Embassy's response to the Kompas article concerning the appointment of Bishop Belo as bishop of East Timor. I hope that this issue will not invite a prolonged polemic next time.

It seems that the Vatican Embassy's Secretariat misunderstood the article.

The Armed Forces (ABRI) understood quite well that it is the Vatican's absolute right to appoint a bishop in a certain region. But the Indonesian people at that time thought there was nothing wrong if the Vatican's representative also listened to what Indonesia and the people had to say. Moreover, in 1975-1976, the situation in East Timor was critical. ABRI was deeply concerned over the way Marxist Fretilin treated the churches.

In 1976, I was assigned to accompany Bishop Ribero when he traveled to Jakarta to meet the Vatican's ambassador for consultations. According to the Armed Forces, it was not wrong to propose, through the Indonesian government, that Bishop Ribero's replacement should hail from East Timor.

If the proposal was deemed to be violating the Vatican's sovereignty, Indonesia should then be warned and asked to apologize. But as far as I was concerned, Indonesia had done nothing wrong in that case because at that time, Portuguese East Timor was "in a state of emergency," during which Fretilin killed leaders and followers of the Apodeti and UDT parties who failed to escape into Indonesian territory.

ABRI had nothing to contend when Bishop Belo emerged in the 1980s, as it was Vatican's power to arrange the matter. However, later we felt rather uneasy, because of the fact that Indonesia had no role whatsoever to play in choosing a leader of a community.

SOEBIJAKTO PRAWIRASOEBRATA

Head of Executive Board

of National Institution

of Strategic Studies