JP/5/TIMOR

JP/5/TIMOR

Ex-militia members looking out for their own with new
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.