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)