RIGHTS-TIMOR: Refugees in West Timor “Disinformrd.”

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 1999 (IPS) - East Timorese, held by Indonesian- backed militias in West Timor were receiving “disinformation” about conditions back home, apparently to discourage them from returning, accoprding to a top US official.

Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Harold Koh, said Tuesday that presence of the militias of some dozen camps in West Timor was “pervasive,” as were the ties between the militia and the Indonesian military.

Koh, who headed a delegation that spent last week in Jakarta, East Timor and Indonesia-controlled West Timor.

He told reporters that his biggest concern at the moment was the safety of East Timorese who fled or were forcibly deported to West Timor after the Indonesian army and the militias conducted a “scorched earth” campaign in East Timor, when its inhabitants voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia on Aug 30. plebiscite.

“The safety considerations are absolutely predominant,” he said.

“People in the camps are living in fear of the militias. International humanitarian NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and particularly NGO workers are ready to help, but the militia presence in the camps is so pervasive that they can’t enter the camp saefly to do this kind of work.”

Members of his delegation were harassed by militia members during their visits to the camps, to such an extent that he was forced to telephone the regional governor to intervene, according to Koh.

His visit came a week after an Australian-led international force (INTERFET) entered East Timor to restore peace and order to the former Portuguese territory, which was occupied by Indonesia since 1975.

In the August plebiscite, organised by the United Nations, East Timorese voted by an almost four-to-one margin to separate from Jakarta.

Despite assurances that the Indonesian army (TNI) would maintain security on the territory regardless of the outcome, the vote set off a rampage by both the army and the pro-Indonesian militias that destroyed most of East Timor’s infrastructure and much of its housing.

While most reports indicated that almost all of the violence was carried out by the militias while the army stood by, Koh said that the TNI played a major role in the mayhem from the start, particularly in Dili, the capital.

“We heard with great consistency that the destruction that was done in Dili was done first by TNI military, who would go into houses, steal television sets, break windows, and that the broken windows would then be signs that militia should come in, loot the rest of the buildings, and then burn them to the ground,” Koh said.

This campaign also included an effort to forcibly depopulate much of the territory, particularly in the area closest to West Timor, he said.

Out of a total population of some 800,000, some 200,000 East Timorese were forced to cross the border into the Indonesian part of the island.

Most of these people were being held in camps largely controlled by the militias and the TNI. While Indonesian civilian officials promised to permit them to return home, it remained unclear when – and even whether – they would be allowed to do so.

Residents of the camps were not receiving any accurate news about the situation in East Timor, Koh said.

“With regard to the question of free choice (whether to return),” he said, “we were struck by the degree of disinformation in the camps. The individuals with whom we spoke had little information about what was going on in East Timor, and virtually all the information that they had was inaccurate,” he said.

“There’s a widespread belief that INTERFET forces are persecuting individuals who are returning to East Timor, and there is a great fear that if they were to be returned, they would face this kind of problem,”” koh said.

“Most people were bewildered, confused, afraid to talk to us. It’s very clear that they have no current information,” he said, noting the Indonesian press was also disseminating “disinformation and misinformation” about the INTERFET operation.

Koh stressed that the line separating the militias from the TNI was unclear, he added, particularly in West Timor to which militias appear to have largely retreated following INTERFET’s arrival.

In the camps visited by his delegation, he said, “many people were wearing the traditional militia garb, which was camouflage pants (and) tee-shirts, (but) some were wearing full-fledged TNI garb…We also heard reports that a number of the militia were seen signing up for and joining the military and becoming absorbed into the military. There seemed to be a pervasive interconnetion between the militia activities and the TNI activities (in the camps).”

At the same time, the line of authority between the military and the militias was also blurred. While the “militias seem to have a variety of masters,” they also appeared to respond to commands by the TNI and even civilian officials.

In the case where he was forced to call the regional governor about the harassment and threats directed at his delegation by militia members, Koh said that the following day “we got the very clear sense that the militia had been told to leave the scene, and they did.

“That suggests some measure of control,” he said. “Whether that measure of control extends to other things remains to be seen.”

So far, Indonesian authorities had permitted two planeloads of East Timorese in West Timor to go home, and civilian officials had promised greater co-operation, he said.

Koh stressed that Washington strongly favoured a process, including an UN investigation, of abuses committed by the militias and the TNI, and that much of his time in both Dili and Jakarta had been taken up with discussions on that subject. It was still too early to know what the evidence to be gathered by the investigators will show, he added.

“Ironically, scorched-earth campaigns, if they really succeed, may end up having fewer casualties than non-scorched-earth campaigns that are targeted directly against the population,” he said.