Essential reading for the military

From the Place of the Dead, Bishop Belo and the Struggle for East Timor; by Arnold S. Kohen; Published by Lion Publishing, Oxford, England, 1999; 398 pages

JAKARTA (JP): Carlos Filipe Ximenes may have remained totally unknown to the world but for a surprise decision by Pope John Paul to elevate him as a young man to his current position as Bishop of Dili. It may well prove to be one of the best decisions of this long papacy.

Reading this inspiring biography of Bishop Belo -- the name Belo is an additional one given to honor him as a grandfather -- it is tempting to say this most famous son of a small and tragic nation will count among the great individuals of the passing century. Too modest himself to say so, Bello deserves to be remembered with Fridtj of Nansen, Nelson Mandela, Helen Keller and others who have risen above the mire of an era marked by the gravest of excesses.

From The Palace of The Dead should be compulsory reading in Indonesian Military (TNI) barracks, but, of course it won't be. It would be too much to ask that retired military officers whose names occur equally as often in Arnold Kohen's highly readable account might read it and "look in to the dark circle of their crimes". Leonardus Benny Murdani: "we will crush them"; Try Sutrisno: "delinquents, we will shoot them "; and Prabowo Subianto, whose specter, some believe hung over East Timor in the violence of 1999, would benefit from reading about the life of a man who knows the meaning of personal integrity. But they won't and it is left to others to unearth the crimes committed under their jurisdiction and that of others; crimes which a brave and often lonely bishop has repeatedly exposed and denounced.

Belo of course, has often himself been a target both of death threats and attempts on his life. Kohen describes how one day "a jittery woman" delivered a cake to his residence. The cake was given to a dog, which died painfully.

All manner of means of intimidation, including a ludicrously inept surveillance operation on the bishop in Dublin, Ireland by two intelligent agents posing as insurance agents, were applied by the Indonesian Military. The Soeharto regime had Bishop Belo in its sights from very early in his tenure, manipulating even some of the East Timorese priesthood and applying pressure on the Vatican.

But Belo refused to bow even to the pressure that came from within the Vatican bureaucracy, where some officials of that notoriously secretive and possessive institution were bitterly opposed to him. One bureaucrat sarcastically asked him after he won the Nobel Peace Prize if he would bend the knee to the East Timorese, and one wonders if there was not perhaps some racism at play here.

As Kohen makes plain, Bishop Belo endured pressure from all sides. He was often criticized by the proindependence faction, especially the youth, for not appearing to stand up to the occupation forces. But Belo is nothing if not prudent and saw no point in throwing his people, who had already suffered so much, onto the guns of a trigger-happy military, all too ready to kill. After the Santa Cruz massacre -- let's dispense with the Orwellian word "incident" -- Belo, who had not been informed of the protest march that ABRI, the Indonesian Armed Forces -- now called TNI, so mercilessly attacked, redoubled his efforts to persuade the youth not to take futile risks.

If L. Benny Murdani, a Catholic himself, does not have pangs of conscience for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor, and the sinister Prabowo, one-time head of Kopassus, the Army's Special Force that stalk through these pages, likewise, perhaps a few more reasonable figures in Abdurrahman Wahid's new Cabinet might find the time to read it. Then they would understand the urgent need to press charges against one or more of those responsible for the great stain on Indonesia's honor that East Timor is.

-- David Jardine