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East Timor: Solidarity Activists Press for Justice
Inter Press Service
August 28, 2009
Matt Crook
DILI (IPS) - After three years behind bars as a political
prisoner in Indonesia, British human rights campaigner Carmel
Budiardjo saw firsthand the viciousness of former President
Suharto's military dictatorship. Expelled from the country in
1971, Budiardjo knew there would be suffering when the
Indonesian military invaded East Timor in 1975.
In this capital for an international solidarity conference being
held Aug. 27-29, Budiardjo told IPS that justice must be served
for crimes committed during the Indonesian military?s savage
24-year occupation that cost up to 200,000 East Timorese lives.
"Justice is really a question of accountability," said
Budiardjo, who founded TAPOL (which means political prisoner in
Indonesian), or the Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, in 1973
with a group of activists in London to campaign for the release
of political prisoners in Indonesia.
"When my organization began to campaign very hard about East
Timor, this became (our focus) along with the political
prisoners, to alert people about the situation," she added.
Budiardjo's late husband, an Indonesian, spent 12 years in
prison without trial. At 84, Budiardjo's hearing may have
diminished over time, but she is still as sharp as a tack.
"I was very acutely aware of the capacity of the military for
brutality," she said.
On Aug. 30, 1999, the people of East Timor voted almost 80
percent in favour of independence, but rather than leaving
quietly, the Indonesian military left its mark by destroying
much of the nation?s infrastructure and killing about 1,400
people.
After a transitional period overseen by the United Nations (UN),
East Timor became independent on May 20, 2002.
Last year, East Timor relied on Indonesia for 42 percent of all
its imports. The close ties between the two nations have been
getting in the way of justice.
"If you want to make people accountable, they will certainly be
Indonesians, the Indonesian military, (but) there are some
people in the East Timorese government who don?t want to upset
the Indonesians," she said. "The grassroots people don?t agree
with that."
"One of the important things is to make sure the Indonesian
people know what happened in East Timor. We from outside can
make complaints about the Indonesian government, but it?s much
more important if the Indonesian people, civil society in
Indonesia, understand what happened," she added.
American John M Miller, national coordinator of the East Timor
and Indonesia Action Network, a non-profit organisation
promoting human rights, also made the trip to Dili to join
solidarity activists from 17 countries.
"In many ways, the campaign for justice has proven more
difficult than the campaign for self-determination and
independence," he said. "To succeed in that, we again need to
have that partnership between the people of East Timor and the
international solidarity movement."
There has been little in the way of justice for the people of
East Timor. Most of those responsible for human rights
violations during the Indonesian military?s occupation have got
off scot-free, despite the UN?s Serious Crimes Unit indicting
391 people.
The unit investigated the crimes committed in the wake of
violence that marred East Timor?s 1999 independence vote.
Eighty-seven of those people were brought to trial in East
Timor, resulting in 84 convictions, although only one remains in
prison after President Jose Ramos-Horta used his presidential
power to cut many of the sentences and grant clemency.
National Union Party leader Fernanda Borges, whose push for an
international tribunal is opposed by Ramos-Horta, thinks enough is enough.
"These are international crimes that we should prosecute due to
our international obligations and our need to end impunity in
this country," she said in a recent speech.
Amnesty International has weighed in on the debate with a report
titled, "We Cry for Justice: Impunity Persists 10 Years on in
Timor-Leste," calling for the UN to set up an international
tribunal.
According to the report, released Thursday, people in East Timor
told the human rights group that the government's favouring of
reconciliation over justice was "very difficult to comprehend
and demoralizing for victims".
The Indonesian government immediately hit back, saying it will
not prosecute alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses in
East Timor, the Jakarta Post English daily reported.
On Apr. 17, victims and families gathered at late independence
leader Manuel Carrascalao?s house, where 10 years earlier, an
Indonesian militia group murdered 12 people. Some 150
individuals had sought refuge at the house after fleeing
violence in East Timor's districts.
This year, those victims and families called for an
international tribunal, as well as for perpetrators of crimes
against humanity to be held accountable for what they did.
These concerns and more are the hot topics at this weeks
solidarity conference.
East Timorese solidarity activist Lita Sarmento said, "We see
that it is relevant to conduct this conference because 10 years
after the referendum, we recognize that there are issues we need
to take forward after independence as part of the unfinished
struggle of the solidarity movement of the past."
Speaking on the opening panel of the solidarity conference,
Irishman Tom Hyland, an East Timor activist, closed his speech
by saying, "We have a saying in Ireland: justice delayed is
justice denied."