Ex-militia members set up organization

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

Former members of the pro-Jakarta militias that rampaged through East Timor in 1999 are forming an organization to protect the rights and privileges they feel the government they fought for is now denying them.

The organization will be chaired by Eurico Gueterres, a militia leader found guilty of atrocities in East Timor, now Timor Leste, before and after the 1999 independence referendum in the former Indonesian territory. The group's secretary-general will be Joanico Cesario, a former militia leader in Baucau, East Timor.

Eurico, whose appeal of a five-year jail sentence for his activities in East Timor is waiting to be heard by the Supreme Court, said the organization was established to assist former militia members who had been largely abandoned by Jakarta since Timor Leste gained independence from Indonesia in 1999.

He said many former pro-Jakarta militia members were still living in decrepit camps along the Indonesian border with Timor Leste, forgotten by the government they fought for.

"They fought to keep Indonesia intact, risking their lives, but the Indonesian government has ignored their sacrifices," said Eurico.

He said the government treated former members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement better than those who fought for Indonesia in East Timor, giving the former rebels amnesty and money to help ease their return to society.

"It is ironic," said Eurico, the former commander of the Red White Iron militia.

He said a formal announcement would soon be made on the establishment of the organization, claiming that the group had already set up offices in several regencies and cities in East Nusa Tenggara and had thousands of members.

The pro-Jakarta militias, which the United Nations has said were recruited and directed by the Indonesian Military, went on an arson and killing spree before and after the East Timorese voted for independence in a UN-sponsored ballot in August 1999.

They reportedly killed about 1,400 independence supporters and laid waste to much of the infrastructure in the half-island, which was a Portuguese colony before Indonesia annexed and invaded it in the mid-1970s.

Members of the pro-Jakarta militias were denied citizenship by the Timor Leste government and many former militia members are now living along the border between Timor Leste and Indonesia.