E. Timor victims testify in ad hoc rights trial, refute military account

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two of the survivors in the April 1999 incident at Liquica Church in East Timor testified here on Thursday that what happened on the day was an attack on scared people by armed prointegration militiamen.

The eyewitnesses, Emillio Bareto and Joao Pereira, told the human rights court in Central Jakarta that local people in the East Timorese town had been living in fear of terror perpetrated by the Besi Merah Putih (BMP) militia group and fellow residents, as the former Indonesian province was gearing up for the UN- sponsored self-determination referendum.

Both witnesses shared the conviction that none of the people seeking refuge was armed or prepared -- considering that the police, the mobile brigade and plainclothed military members were also there -- when the locals and several other militia groups later joined in the attack, breaking into the church compound at 1 p.m.

"Pereira and I were hiding in a restroom. We heard them calling our names out and asking us to surrender. We got out. But we were slashed with a machete by a militia member," Pereira said. He was gashed on both arms, and Bareto was wounded on his head.

They said they had obtained information that nine were killed but nobody knew where they were buried.

Earlier investigation revealed that more than 30 people died in the incident and the bodies thrown into the sea and lake.

Bareto and Pereira testified in separate hearings against former governor Abilio Soares and former East Timor police chief Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, believed to have been responsible for crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999.

The hearings are part of the human rights ad hoc trial on the human rights abuses committed in East Timor in the lead up to and following the UN-organized popular ballot on Aug. 31, 1999.

The Liquica incident began at Easter on April 4 when the BMP burned down the house of proindependence figures in the regency. The attackers ran to the Maubara Military Command Headquarters when angry locals chased them with bows and machetes.

On the next day, the militia, with the help of the police and the military, retaliated by hunting down locals and firing random shots that forced around 3,000 people, including the witnesses, to take refuge in the church.

Early on April 6, the church compound was surrounded by the militia group, who were armed with machetes and guns. Two police officers entered and asked Priest Rafael to surrender village chief Jacinto da Costa Conceicao. The priest refused to hand da Costa to the BMP.

A victim of another pro-Jakarta militia attack in the St. Ave Maria Church in Suai, Covalima regency, on Sept. 6, 1999, Dominggas dos Santos Mouzinho, failed to appear at Thursday's hearing. She testified on Tuesday.