E. Timor military scouts come to terms with past

E. Timor military scouts come to terms with past

JAKARTA (JP): A few months after former president Soeharto
stepped down in May 1998, the military announced it was
withdrawing its troops from East Timor.

This ended some 23 years of strong military presence in the
province, though there are allegations that the military is still
present in other forms, such as the civilian militia.

From 1976 to 1979, East Timorese could not escape the
unwritten obligation to hand over their sons as military scouts.
These boys, between the ages of 10 and 15, helped carry weapons,
sacks of rice, their seniors' clothes and other equipment.

Dozens of youngsters were recruited from each regency. No
exact figures are available, including the number of those who
died in battle.

But a former recruit says some 50 boys died in his home
regency of Bobonaro alone, either from illness or gunshot wounds.

The concept of recruiting young boys to play a certain role in
the military has been passed down from era to era and has taken
on many forms, including the use of child drummers at the
forefront of battles during the Civil War in the United States.

The tradition was first brought to Indonesia by the Dutch
colonial rulers. "The concept was then used in East Timor and
Irian Jaya," says a retired officer who spent his youth in the
early 1940s playing with military scouts near his Central Java
home.

"It was exciting," he said, "to get the scouts' share of
canned military rations."

However, there are tales which should not be told. The boy was
once beaten by his father when he recited stories about how his
friends had been sexually abused.

Some of this experience rubbed off, and he is now involved in
the protection of children. While the young scouts were part of
an accepted military practice, the use of the children would now
be a violation of the International Convention of the Rights of
Children.

"I know what it was like," the retired officer said, recalling
his friends' stories, including the scenes of horror. "You can
see, but you cannot tell."

In East Timor, the young scouts, known as tenaga bantuan
operasi (TBO), have vanished into the adult population inside and
outside the province.

The term TBO was in the news in the capital following an
unprecedented brawl in 1997 among hoodlums fighting for territory
in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta. Those involved in the fight were
East Timorese.

The East Timorese said they were former scouts who had to earn
a living by "providing security" in the lucrative market after
the government failed to fulfill promises to provide them jobs in
reward for their services.

They said at least they felt like they were being given help
by the military, citing the Army's Special Force in particular.

Reconciliation

Other former scouts are now involved in a variety of
professions, from serving in the military to driving a taxi. A
member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women who
is also involved in the peace process in East Timor, said earlier
this year in Dili that it was such young men who could play a
part in reconciliation by making peace with themselves after
witnessing scenes of atrocities.

But confronting long suppressed images is a difficult task for
the former scouts.

The following is a short account from a former scout, now 29:

"I was recruited in 1979 when I was 10 and was a TBO until
1980. A scout's term depends on the military operation. A captain
posted near my family in Maliana regency took a liking to me,
saying I was like his nephew. I was white then and had reddish
hair.

"If a soldier said he wanted a boy, the family could not say
no. My mother didn't fuss. I was born into a military family. My
brother and my uncle are soldiers.

"So for a whole year I missed school. I did not have friends
of my age. There was no play. It was days of trekking through
forests, always moving, sleeping wherever posts were set up,
working rain or shine.

"I was the only scout in the military unit. There are usually
one or two to every group of 15 soldiers. I had it a bit easier
than scouts working for sergeants because I worked for a captain.
I didn't carry armory or sacks of rice. Just his clothes and
books, and my own clothing.

"I also had to take turns keeping awake on guard duty.

"Scouts get skilled in cooking with anything we can find. The
only spice was ajinomoto; we brought lots of it. Don't ask about
taste. About anything is good when you're famished. Once there
was no water. We shot down coconuts and used the water to cook
rice and everything else. It was all so sweet.

"The children whom I knew rarely got sick. We were pretty
strong, having got used to everything.

"After my duty as a scout was over, I went back to school. I
managed to even skip one class because I could do arithmetic and
speak Indonesian after being with the military.

"Some fellow scouts are now in the military here. I never
wanted to be a soldier. Some think wearing the uniform is grand,
but I known how hard it is; it was so tiring.

"At that time, as a boy, I got used to seeing blood, bodies,
seeing people fall ... I kept it all to myself ... it was so
ordinary. But now I am terrified to look at bodies.

"When I see a body I recall all those corpses lying about, how
they looked ... the military had all sorts of sentences for
people. I came to know how they treated people."

And that was all he would say. (anr)