East Timor's independence brings bitter pain for veterans
East Timor's independence brings bitter pain for veterans
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
East Timor's secession in 1999 has still left bitter pains for
many Indonesians, particularly veterans who fought for its
integration with Indonesia 27 years ago.
They lashed out at President Megawati Soekarnoputri's decision
to visit East Timor to attend the former Indonesian province's
independence declaration at midnight on Sunday.
In the eastern suburb of Jakarta, veterans began hoisting
Indonesian flags to half-mast in front of their modest homes on
Friday to mourn soldiers killed in the military exchanges over
East Timor's integration in 1975.
The red-and-white flags would only be taken down when Megawati
flew home from the world's newest nation, they said.
The protesting veterans comprised 400 families housed in the
Seroja (lotus) military residential complex in Bekasi, some 30
kilometers east of Jakarta.
Seroja was the codename for Indonesia's 1975 military
operation to take over East Timor after it had been abandoned by
its former colony, Portugal. The operation resulted in the death
of thousands of Indonesian troops, most of whom were still young.
Most residents in the low-cost housing complex still bore the
scars from gunshot wounds and surgery. Some could be seen with
amputated limbs, and several others had lost one or two eyes, or
their hearing.
To step up pressure on Megawati to cancel the trip, more than
200 war widows and veterans from the complex, including those
rendered handicapped after the occupation, staged a peaceful, but
noisy rally outside Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta on Friday.
Megawati's visit coincides with the country's National
Awakening Day celebration, which falls on Monday, and the
veterans said Megawati should lead the commemorations at home
instead of celebrating with East Timorese on Sunday.
"We feel betrayed and forgotten by the government," retired
Sgt. Maj. Soekoro, who chairs a veterans' association based in
the Seroja housing complex and who also led Friday's rally, told
The Jakarta Post.
The 45-year-old Soekoro lost one of his lungs after having
been shot in the right side of his chest during a guerrilla
ambush in East Timor in 1978, three years after his arrival
there.
He demanded that the government move the graves of Indonesian
troops killed in East Timor to their respective hometowns, so
their families could more conveniently visit them regularly.
The veterans also asked the government to pay serious
attention to the improvement of their welfare.
"Megawati should see us first before she visits East Timor,"
former Chief Corp. I Made Nirsan, who was among soldiers deployed
to East Timor in 1976, said. His left leg was amputated after
nine months of service and he was sent home.
In an apparent attempt to calm hostility at her trip, Megawati
will lay a wreath at the National Heroes' cemetery in Dili,
capital of East Timor.
In response, Soekoro said: "It will be merely a token visit by
Megawati. If she really cares about us, she should cancel the
trip".
Anger is still strong against then president B.J. Habibie, who
decided to allow East Timorese to vote for independence on Aug.
30, 1999, in a UN-brokered ballot.
As a result of the vote, vengeful troops and pro-Jakarta
militias went on the rampage, killing hundreds and destroying
much of the territory, before retreating to the Indonesian
western half of the island, East Nusa Tenggara.
Asmuransyah, a former chief corporal, said he and other
veterans were still unable to accept East Timor's breakaway from
Indonesia.
"The state has contributed a lot to East Timor. We should have
defended it anyhow," he said.
Another victim, Ellen Rantung, a widow whose husband was
killed on Nov. 19, 1977 but did not know where his corpse was
buried, claimed that she and other members of veteran's families
had received no compensation after the campaign that killed more
than 3,000 soldiers.