Date: Sunday, April 18, 1999 2:00 AM Subject: Dili update, Saturday evening Report from an anonymous foreigner currently in Dili: Dili Saturday, 14:20 After parading in military formation for several hours outside the provincial governor's office under the careful direction of Indonesian military officers, more than 1000 armed pro-Indonesian paramilitary members have taken control of the streets of Dili. On motorbike, truck and on foot, the paramilitaries bearing traditional and automatic weapons are at this moment moving around the capital at will, shooting in the air, burning, ransacking homes, including that of independence leader, Manuel Carrascalao. Part of Becora market and at least a half-dozen houses have been razed. The streets are empty save for the paramilitary groups and the accompanying special mobile police units. It is impossible to know the full extent of the damage and violence. There are no confirmed deaths yet, but the paramilitary rampage may have only just begun. Dili Saturday 19:14 The military continues to give free run to pro-Indonesian paramilitary groups. We now know that at least 9 people, including the adopted son of Manuel Carrascalao, have been shot dead, probably all by the paramilitaries, though perhaps some by Indonesian security forces supervising them. Photographers were told they would be shot if they took pictures. The offices of the local newspaper, Suara Tim Tim, have been smashed up. Little else is known; no journalist dares go on the streets. Dili Saturday, 19:39: Army has confirmed 13 dead, and other reports say between 20 and 30 dead. Paramilitary men entered the Makhota hotel, climbed to the 2nd floor and roughed up foreign journalists, including the head of Agence France Presse in Indonesia. Indonesian police and army do nothing. Dili Saturday 21:38 A report, unconfirmed, but from a reliable source. Apparently, the area around Liquica, where last week's massacre occurred, was cordoned off earlier today or this evening, and killing, whether by paramilitary or military I was not told, began. The source said four truckloads of dead bodies were transported from the area and dogs were chewing on the bodies of dead left on the ground. ---------------------------------- >From everything I have seen and heard, it seems that most of the paramilitary members are unwilling participants and they do no violence. As was true of last year's pro-integration demonstrations, most pro-Indonesian paramilitary members have been forced in some way to participate. Others have been paid. There is a small hard core who do the shooting and killing. Some of them, at least, are from West Timor, perhaps even members of the military. The photos and film footage of the international media all focus on the paramilitary men. Their army handlers stand in the background, grinning evilly. Eurico Guterres, a paramilitary leader, said at the rally this morning that he wants to wipe out all the former pro-Indonesian East Timorese who now support independence. Carrascalao is one of them. He also talked about splitting East Timor in two, with the area west of Dili under some sort of pro-Indonesian government. The paramilitaries are strongest and have been most active in this area; Liquica, site of last week's massacre, is the major western town on the north coast. We all expect more bad news. There are reports of Falintil guerrilla attacks on small Indonesian outposts throughout the country, but the guerrillas are not strong enough to do much more than this without suffering intolerably high numbers of casualties themselves. The coming days and coming months both seem more and more difficult to predict. To twist around an old slogan from the struggle in El Salvador, Will history here be written with a gun or with a pen, I can not guess. *********************************************************** Charles Scheiner National Coordinator, East Timor Action Network/US P.O. Box 1182, White Plains, New York 10602 USA Telephone:1-914-428-7299; fax:1-914-428-7383 [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key available on request. Check out ETAN's web site: http://www.etan.org For information on East Timor write [EMAIL PROTECTED] Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
