Key witness testifies on 1999 East Timor violence

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The first eyewitness testified on Tuesday during the trial of five suspected human rights violators believed to have been responsible for the deaths of civilians in Suai town, East Timor, following the September 1999 independence referendum.

East Timor citizen Dominggas dos Santos Mouzinho testified in broken Indonesian instead of the local Tetun language after the panel of ad hoc judges decided that the housewife was able to speak Indonesian fluently without the help of the interpreter who had been provided by the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET).

However, she apparently had difficulty understanding and replying to the questions posed by the judges, the prosecutors and the defense lawyers during the non-stop four-hour hearing, which took place in the building that houses the Central Jakarta District Court.

The 44-year-old housewife and her three children were among the 150 civilians who took refuge in the St. Ave Maria Church in Suai, Covalima regency, on Sept. 5 after the Laksaur and Mahidi pro-Jakarta militias burned their house down. Her husband ran off to hide in the mountains.

Mouzinho told the tribunal in her broken Indonesian that she witnessed the militia groups break into the church compound on Sept. 6. The militiamen then entered the dining room where civilians were sheltering.

She testified that she had seen militia member Olivio Cato slay Fransisco Soares, one of the three Catholic priests who were among the 27 killed in the attack, as she was being dragged out by militiamen, and that many police and military personnel were inside and around the church compound at the time but did nothing.

"Many. Many military, many police. (They) just stand still," she said.

Mouzinho added that she saw two of the defendants, regent Col. Herman Sedyono and military commander Lt. Col. Sugito, both of whom were armed, at separate places inside the compound. She also saw them talking to the militiamen. She stood by her testimony even though the two defendants rejected her account.

The defendants face charges of neglecting their duty by not trying to prevent the attack.

Mouzinho also told the court that the militia groups kept terrorizing the civilians who were sheltering inside Suai military headquarters. Her daughter was woken up by them at 2 a.m and returned one hour later, claiming that she had been raped.

Mouzinho flew back to East Timor Tuesday but will return to Jakarta on Wednesday with two fellow citizens to testify in two other hearings on Thursday in relation to the alleged crimes against humanity committed in the lead up to and following the popular ballot.