-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.37/timor_war.htm <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.37/timor_war.htm">The Gruesome Tradition of Timor Warfare, by Ric </A> ----- The whole Laissez Faire Times is a special on East Timor. Om K ----- The Gruesome Tradition of Timor Warfare by Richard S. Ehrlich JAKARTA, Indonesia -- International troops landing in East Timor face Indonesians who have traditions of warfare rarely displayed on modern battlefields, such as poisonous blowpipes, circumcision of prisoners, decapitations and cannibalism. Torture, and the use of child soldiers, are also skills that may be used�especially against Caucasian troops. The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was forced at gunpoint to evacuate East Timor, earlier published a booklet in cooperation with Jakarta's prestigious Trisakti University describing the gruesome weaponry and often cruel behavior of Indonesian fighters during past centuries. Titled, "Traditional Laws of War in Indonesia," the glossy 56-page booklet tried to determine if Indonesians had their own rules of war, similar to the Geneva Conventions. Ironically, ICRC Head of Delegation Dr. Toni Pfanner, who proudly signed the booklet's introduction in June when it was published here, had no idea that he and other human rights groups would be forced out of East Timor less than three months later. We�ll Show You the Laws of War "It was an absolutely terrifying situation," Pfanner told The Laissez Faire City Times. "We were brought to the beach at gunpoint. It was the militias, so we had our hands up. "Some were beaten. They feared the worst. They thought they would be executed. There was no question of resisting." Pfanner and 10 other foreign ICRC staffers, plus seven foreign officials from other human rights organizations, had no choice but to depart East Timor on September 6. Their expulsion, and the booklet's publication celebrating "the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions," were not linked. But the chilling text may now prove valuable for the foreign troops, because it provides detailed information on the psychology and military tactics of Indonesians when they went on killing sprees. Today, militias armed with American M-16 assault rifles, homemade machetes, bombs and other weapons are vowing to fight to keep East Timor part of Indonesia, despite losing an August 30 vote for its independence. The militias have specifically threatened to kill Caucasians in the Australian, American, Canadian and other contingents. One militia fighter was quoted as promising to "eat the heart" of foreign troops. The militias were armed, financed and trained by the Indonesian military which, in turn, received massive amounts of US military hardware and cash during the past three decades. After foreign troops land on East Timor, they will discover if the Indonesian military is continuing to supply weapons to the militias, and if so, how sophisticated those weapons are and if they can seriously escalate the violence. Indonesians have a long, bloody history of fighting against Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and British forces who tried to invade or occupy parts of their island archipelago. They also fought among themselves to gain island kingdoms, property, women and revenge. Militias in East Timor may unleash a protracted jungle-based guerrilla war against their new foreign enemies. If so, they may rely on powerful rituals and traditions which international forces have not been trained to defend against. For example, in various regions, prisoners of previous wars sometimes enjoyed relatively humane treatment, but in other cases suffered atrocities. "They could be killed, threatened or circumcised, as happened to Dutch prisoners of war under Sultan Agung," says the ICRC and Trisakti University report, referring to the sultan's military encirclement of Jakarta in 1628. In past battles in and around East Timor, "there were also prisoners of war who were made slaves." Elsewhere, tribes "did not recognize the concept of prisoners of war. If an enemy surrendered or was no longer able to fight, they would be killed and decapitated. "Their heads would then be thrown into the battlefield to inspire valor." In East Timor, militia assassins may not be targeting only Caucasian troops, but also all senior commanders. "One feature generally prevalent in traditional war in Indonesia was that the conflict ended once the military leader or commander had been killed or caught." Though the UN-mandated multinational trooops insist they are trying to enforce peace, that goal has a different process among some Indonesians which modern armies may find difficult to imagine. Planting Heads and Trees "Among the Puak Ngada tribe, peace-making was carried out by holding a 'wuga ngusu' ceremony, a ritual to restore relations between parties which had been at war. "According to fighting tradition, enemy heads that had been cut off were placed on a holy building called 'wangu,' which was made of a mound of stones. "After the heads had rotted, a 'ngusu' tree was planted on the spot as a symbol representing the enemy's decapitation." In East Timor, today's militia fighters who threaten to cannibalize their enemies' hearts may not be satisfied with a peace treaty. "The terminiation of war did not mean that peace had been achieved. These cannibalistic communities never wanted to make peace, preferring to gather fresh strength to take revenge." Bows and arrows, spears, magic spells and a variety of swords already complete the militia's arsenal, in addition to mercenaries, muskets, US assault rifles and other firepower. But if deprived of ammunition or supply lines, Indonesians are skilled at creating killer spears and knives of bamboo. Some know how to make stone axes to crack an enemy's skull. Island tribes in and around East Timor have also favored blowpipes to deliver poisonous darts, silently, through the jungle into a person's flesh. Hundreds of years ago, Indonesians perfected the use of poison-tipped daggers, spears, arrows and darts. "Poison was only very rarely used in warfare, although some did use it to kill their enemies," the report adds. "Such poison was made from several different types of material. One used by the Minahasa (tribe) was made from a species of millipede" -- an insect found in Indonesia. Others used poison "derived from Antiaris Toxicaria and Derris Elliptica roots." They also developed sinister jungle traps. "Traps made from bamboo spears, planted in the ground and covered with leaves as a camouflage" sometimes included "traps which could release arrows." Welcome to the Jungle American, Australian, Thai and other troops will remember similar dangers during their joint war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, when manure-tipped bamboo spikes, known as "punji sticks," were set by communist north Vietnamese to protrude from the jungle floor. A soldier who stepped on the spike not only received a crippling foot wound, but also the immediate danger of severe infection from the manure on the sharpened point. During past centuries, tribes on Indonesia's nearby Irian Jaya island fashioned "arrowheads which would splinter upon contact with the human body, and required surgical removal." Other past kingdoms used "bullets made from tin and steel slivers, which could cause multiple wounds. The bullet head was very difficult to remove if it hit the body, and could result in very serious wounds. "Also commonly performed at the time were encirclement techniques, sabotage such as burning logistic sources and waterways -- springs, rivers and dams -- destruction of paddy fields and local housing, and even scorched-earth tactics." Indeed, the military and militias which rampaged in East Timor after they lost the vote remained true to tradition by destroying nearly all the buildings in the provincial capital Dili in a deadly scorched-earth assault. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of East Timorese perished in the first two weeks of September, according to the UN and other officials. Indonesians also like to goad enemies into illogical or uncontrolled responses. "In the kingdom of Demak, there were tactics which could cause the enemy to lose concentration. Examples were the participation of children in fighting, and efforts to provoke the enemy emotionally into undertaking taboo actions." In previous wars across Indonesia, "battles to the death without surrender" were common, along with guerrilla tactics of night assaults, ambushes and surprise attacks on housing areas. In this Southeast Asian nation of islands, some kingdoms employed "a battle strategy involving burning boats or rafts being deliberately floated or pushed towards enemy craft." In Indonesia's Irian Jaya, just northeast of Timor island, "war could also be seen as a game by these tribes, to the point that there was no winner, loser nor seizure of territory. "An interesting feature of this tradition was that the war would end once the number of casualties from both sides was equal." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Richard S. Ehrlich has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Columbia University, and is the co-author of the classic book of epistolary history, "HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!"--Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. His web page is located at http://members.tripod.com/ehrlich, and he may be reached by email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 37, September 20, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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