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