*** To sign on this important statement, please contact me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or +1-608-663-5431 with your name, organization, title, and location (city
and state in U.S., city and country elsewhere, for identification purposes).
Thank you! ***
Justice for East Timor Demands an International Tribunal
A Statement from Women¹s Studies Scholars,
Women Leaders and Feminist Organizations
³An International Tribunal is the most pressing demand in the interests of
justice. Of all the victims of Indonesian military violence the greatest
suffering was borne by women, who up to this time, have not met with the
justice they hoped for.²
-- from a statement by the East Timorese Women¹s Network, June 2001
We join with our East Timorese sisters in calling for an international
tribunal for East Timor.
We urge the United Nations Security Council to establish an international
tribunal for East Timor without delay. The East Timorese people have waited
far too long for the architects and perpetrators of the atrocities committed
against them to be brought to justice. Over two years have passed since the
United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor called for
an international human rights tribunal. During that time, it has become
clear that only an international tribunal can hold accountable the
high-ranking Indonesian military, police and government officials most
responsible for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor.
When Indonesia illegally invaded and occupied East Timor in 1975, it began a
genocidal campaign that lasted nearly a quarter-century. During the first
five years of the occupation, some 200,000 people one-third of the
pre-invasion population were killed. The occupation specifically targeted
women in several ways, including the following:
’ Rape and ³forced marriage² to military personnel were used to terrorize
and control East Timorese women, to punish pro-independence families, and to
reward Indonesian soldiers. A study of gender violence in 1999 by the
Communication Forum for East Timorese Women (FOKUPERS) found many acts of
rape were ³planned, organized, and sustained militia and soldiers
conniving together to abduct women and share them like chattel; or, in some
cases, forcibly taking women across the border into [Indonesian] West Timor
where the women were raped daily and made to perform household chores.²
Tragically, the women among the estimated 80,000 East Timorese still in
Indonesian refugee camps remain vulnerable to sexual assault by militia and
military members.
’ East Timorese women were forcibly sterilized by the Indonesian military
under the guise of ³family planning². It is estimated that tens of
thousands of women were injected with contraceptives without their consent
sometimes even without their knowledge and never with adequate follow-up
care.
’ An unknown number of East Timorese children were kidnapped and raised in
Indonesia as Indonesian citizens, a practice that continues today. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has confirmed 240 cases of
East Timorese children being taken from their parents by militia in
Indonesian refugee camps since 1999; according to the UN, as many as 2,000
children may be held captive currently.
In the face of such suffering, it is truly reprehensible that the world
community has knowingly placed its faith in an unacceptable alternative to
an international tribunal the Indonesian ad hoc Human Rights Court for
East Timor. Due to its many flaws, the Indonesian court will not adequately
address cases of gender violence and the systematic targeting of women and
children, among other serious crimes.
International justice was significantly advanced last year by the decision
of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to classify rape as
a crime against humanity. But the world community cannot stop there.
Atrocities committed against the people of East Timor deserve no less
attention than those committed against peoples of other nations. An
international tribunal for East Timor, with a mandate covering the entire
Indonesian occupation, must be established now to redress the most heinous
crimes committed against the women and men of East Timor. Otherwise,
international justice will appear weak and conditional, rule of law will be
undermined, and the people of the world¹s newest nation will have good
reason to lose faith in the world community.
____________________________________________
Diane Farsetta
East Timor Action Network field organizer ETAN field office
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Social Justice Center
office 608-663-5431 1202 Williamson St
cell 608-347-4598 Madison, WI 53703
home 608-255-4598 fax 608-227-0141
Check out these internet sites!
the East Timor Action Network/US http://www.etan.org
Madison, WI - East Timor projects http://www.aideasttimor.org
Madison's Social Justice Center http://www.socialjusticecenter.org
"... in '74, after the [Indonesian military] invasion [of East Timor] ...
we all fought together, we were united ... and I believe that if we could
unite, we can forge another kind of unity, to fight for other things, like
fight against poverty, fight against illiteracy, fight against disease,
fight against many, many other things."
-Kay Rala Xanana Gusmćo
