Proindependence wins, luckily

Proindependence wins, luckily

Prior to the Aug. 30 direct ballot on the future status of
East Timor, the proindependence group complained that the
prointegration group pressured and intimidated local people to
opt for integration. On the other hand, the prointegration group
filed a protest, saying that the United Nations Mission in East
Timor (UNAMET) took sides with the proindependence group and
recruited only people from the proindependence group for its
local staff. Therefore, it could be easily predicted that there
would be bloody clashes between these two conflicting groups
after the announcement of the result of the direct ballot,
irrespective of which group won.

Migrants in East Timor predicted that the prointegration group
would win. This would then trigger the anger of the
proindependence group, who would resort to acts of violence
against prointegration locals, particularly migrants. Even under
normal circumstances before the Aug. 30 direct ballot, teachers
and medical personnel dedicating themselves to East Timor were
already subjected to torture by certain proindependence people.
Because of this worry, migrants began to leave East Timor. The
number of people leaving East Timor prior to the Aug. 30 direct
ballot stood at over 12,000 people and grew in number each
passing day.

After the result of the direct ballot was announced on Sept.
4, the prointegration group, which believed that the direct
ballot had been rigged by UNAMET and the anti-Jakarta group,
resorted to acts that caused concern to everybody, only to vent
their anger.

The foreign media and Western countries supporting the
independence of East Timor began to denounce and threaten
Indonesia, saying that it could not overcome the brutal action of
prointegration militias and accusing the Indonesian military of
abetting the prointegration militias in causing this mayhem.

I try to imagine what would have happened if the winner was
the prointegration group. The proindependence group would then be
angry and resort to the same acts the prointegrationists are
committing now. Members of the proindependence group would vent
their anger upon government apparatuses of the republic of
Indonesia, the prointegration group and also UNAMET. They would
attack military bases and police stations, the head office of
UNAMET and locals believed to have opted for the wide-ranging
autonomy offered by the Indonesian government.

Surely under such circumstances, the Indonesian military and
police as well as the prointegration militias would not remain
defensive. They would certainly launch a counterattack and the
number of victims would be larger than it is now.

Luckily, it is the proindependence group that won the direct
ballot.

SUNARTO PRAWIROSUJANTO

Jakarta