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