Ex-Army members to farm in E. Timor

Ex-Army members to farm in E. Timor

By Yemris Fointuna

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Of their own free will,
hundreds of thousands of East Timorese who have been living in
refugee camps in Indonesia's West Timor for the past two years,
have now decided to return to their homeland following the
successful general election in East Timor, held in a free,
orderly and safe manner on Aug. 30, 2001.

Along with these East Timorese refugees, some 600 members of
the Indonesian Military (TNI), once notorious for its involvement
in cruel, scorched-earth policies in East Timor pursued after the
self-determination referendum in 1999, have decided to leave
military service and return to their homeland and work together
with their former political foes in building a peaceful,
democratic and harmonious East Timor.

Udayana Military chief Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa said that
some 200 of these former soldiers of East Timorese origin have
returned to East Timor and that the remaining 400 will do
likewise after the administrative process of their early
retirement and honorable discharge from the military service is
completed.

When interviewed by The Jakarta Post at Naibonat refugee camp
in Kupang regency on Sept. 19, some of the military personnel of
East Timorese origin who have filed an application for early
retirement said that they had decided to return to their homeland
of their own free will. They also denied allegations emerging
from some quarters in Kupang that they had betrayed their
motherland by giving up their TNI positions to return to East
Timor, now known as Timor Lorosa'e, which the East Timorese
explain as meaning 'Timor, the land where the sun rises'.

One soldier, Alfonso da Silva, 43, a chief private hailing
from Viqueque, said that he had just filed an application for
early retirement from his unit, Infantry Battalion 744, and that
he and his family would have returned to East Timor had it not
been for rumors that former TNI members would be killed upon
their return.

"We were ready to return home quite a while ago, but rumors
were spread in our camp that if I went back to East Timor, I
would be killed by the pro-independence group. Later Bishop
Basilio Nascimento of Baucau came to Kupang and told us there
were no more killings and no more violence in East Timor. He also
said that all refugees whose hands were not bloody could return
home. It's true that I'm a member of the TNI, but I have never
killed anybody," he said, adding that his entire family had
agreed to return to their homeland.

He expressed hope that the East Timorese people, who were once
embroiled in civil war, would stand ready for a peaceful
reconciliation. If this happens, he said, many more refugees will
be willing to return to East Timor.

"My family and I must return to our homeland. We have a plot
of land there and I will be a good farmer," Alfonso said.

Another member of Infantry Battalion 744, Francisco Ferandes
from Dili, agreed with Alfonso, and maintained that he had no
special reason to return to East Timor except that he and his
family longed to enjoy their freedom in peace and safety with
their siblings and relatives.

"Whatever happens, we must return home. East Timor is where we
were all born. Perhaps, some people will nurture some envy or
hatred against us but we are all ready for this as we believe it
will soon pass. I'll work as a farmer or just do anything to
support my family," he said.

Another TNI member, Louis Sarmentho Amaral, 37, said that his
decision to return to East Timor was prompted by a desire to
reunite with his family, the loved ones he had left behind when
there was a massive exodus out of East Timor two years ago.

"I left East Timor then because I was a member of the TNI. My
wife and two children sought safety in a mountain area. Security
has been restored in East Timor now and the East Timorese live in
peace, so I have decided to return home and be reunited with my
family. East Timor is everything for us," he said.

Some East Timorese and a number of prominent East Timorese
figures, such as Dili bishop Mgr. Carlos Filipe Ximenes Bello,
East Timorese independence figure Xanana Gusmao and Foreign
Minister Ramos Horta, have said on different occasions that the
East Timorese had never harbored any envy or revenge against the
refugees, including former pro-integration militiamen and former
members of the TNI.

Instead, they have continually called on their fellow
countrymen still in refugee camps to return home and work hand in
hand to build the Timor Lorosa'e state and eliminate poverty.

"Allow me to call on the East Timorese still in West Timor to
pack up and return home along with their children," Bishop Belo
said at the Dili Lecidere diocese palace, East Dili, recently.