By Norm Dixon
The Indonesian military is continuing its reign of terror in occupied East Timor. The human rights group TAPOL reports that many people were arrested just prior to the arrival of the Indonesian government-appointed commission of inquiry into the vicious November 12 Dili massacre.
These arrests confirm the widespread scepticism about the hand-picked commission's ability and willingness to carry out an impartial investigation into the killing of an estimated 180 peaceful mourners at the Santa Crux cemetery.
TAPOL reports that Timorese on the streets are being rounded up and taken to police headquarters. It is widely feared that these detainees will be required to testify to the commission, whether or not they were present at the demonstration and massacre.
Far from carrying out an objective inquiry, the commission appointed by President Suharto has become a new source of fear among the already terror-stricken population of Dili. It is composed of senior political appointees from the interior, justice and foreign affairs ministries and the inspector-general of the armed forces. It is headed by retired Major General Jaelani, a former commando and recently appointed to the Supreme Court.
Some members of the commission have been freely spouting the government-military version of events in the Indonesian press before their inquiry has begun. Commission member and top foreign ministry official Hadi Wayarabi has accused Portugal of being behind the November 12 demonstration.
Not surprisingly, anyone who was present at the November 12 demonstration is unlikely to appear before this stacked "inquiry". These fears have intensified following reports of the execution of up to 80 witnesses to the original massacre and a further two mass killings.
At midnight on November 17, 10 Timorese who witnessed the second massacre were arrested and killed. On November 18, another seven were shot dead, apparently because they had witnessed the previous day's shooting. These seven victims included two children, one-year-old Gaspar and Joao Soares, four years old.
One frantic East Timorese who passed this information to TAPOL appealed for the outside world to help: "We are living in hell. If the UN doesn't send observers to monitor and protect us as soon as possible, we will disappear as a people."
Jose Ramos Horta, spokesperson for a broad alliance of Timorese resistance groups, told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that the seven, whom he named, had been thrown into a common grave which was covered over with tarmac. He said 249 people had been arrested since the November 12 killings and were being held in the military police barracks in Dili.
Antonio Sampaio, editor of the East Timor News Agency, which supplies spapers and radio programs in Australia, said he had confirmed the reports of a third and fourth massacre from three of his own sources in Dili.
A report in the November 25 Melbourne Age quoted a recently returned Australian tourist who said he had heard 45 seconds of concentrated machine-gun fire from the valley where the second massacre was said to have taken place. An East Timorese later told him that he had seen a truck with between 60 and 80 people in the back heading for the area.
Amnesty International, on November 25, released the names of 60 people killed or missing, presumed dead, after the November 12 massacre, saying the final death toll may reach 200.
"The figure of 60 are the names that we have been given to date", reported Amnesty's East Timor campaign coordinator in Australia, Andre Frankovits. Most of those killed or missing were students, aged between 10 and 35, he said. Amnesty said reports of subsequent massacres were credible and needed investigating by the United Nations.
"There are too many independent sources claiming that the subsequent events have taken place to ignore them, which is why we insist there is an urgency to investigate and investigate independently", said Frankovits.
Amnesty called on Prime Minister Bob Hawke to urge the United Nations to launch an independent inquiry. "We certainly do not believe that the investigation promised by the Indonesians will be impartial or that it will turn up any of the facts", stressed Frankovits.
From Ermera, south of Dili, TAPOL's sources say that anyone picked up without identity cards is required to do push-ups and stand in the glaring sun for a day. A woman on her way to town to give birth was ordered to return home.
The Portuguese-language Sao Jose school in Dili is still closed, and many pupils of other schools, particularly boys, are afraid to go to school for fear of being picked up by the military or pro-Indonesian vigilantes. The main Dili marketplace remains deserted.
An announcement by the military commander, Brigadier-General Warouw, that the masked vigilantes who parade the Dili streets at night would be shot is being treated with derision by the population. It is seen as an attempt to persuade Timorese to go out into the streets, to create an impression of normality during the commission's investigations.
A policeman, who would not give his name, told an Associated Press reporter that Dili, with a population of about 125,000 people, seems normal during the day, but public places begin to empty as the sun sets. He said that people are afraid to go out after dark even though there is no curfew. They talk about sensitive subjects in whispers, and then only among family. A taxi driver added that many people are afraid to discuss the violence because of worries about the young people who have been arrested.
Jose Ramos Horta has also reported that sporadic killings are ast Timor. He told the November 26 Melbourne Age that "peasants have been shot at random in the small hamlets, many priests have been beaten up and the military have been confiscating statues and rosary beads from the churches".
Six East Timorese students in Bali, and nine East Timorese students in Yogyakarta were arrested on November 23 and 24. Another nine students were arrested in Bandung following a demonstration there.
Forty-nine of the 70 East Timorese students arrested while demonstrating in front of the UN offices and the Japanese and Australian embassies in Jakarta on November 19 were finally released on November 26. Lawyers have not been permitted to see those still in detention.
It is understood that they will be charged under articles 155 and 154 of the Criminal Code — spreading "hatred or enmity" against the government — which carry a maximum penalty of seven years. Lawyers point out that peacefully demonstrating is not a criminal offence, especially since a number of people from government-sponsored organisations have been demonstrating for days outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta without anyone being arrested.
The international human rights group Asia Watch has demanded that the 21 students remaining in custody be released immediately. Asia Watch is concerned that the authorities have said the detainees are being "intensively interrogated" — a phrase that often indicates physical abuse or torture.