Satu lagi bukti bhw berita dari ETAN dan LSM lainnya itu tidak
berdasarkan kepada realita tetapi sekedar ingin menghancurkan Indonesia.
Salam
Mahendra
Evidence of Mass Killings Scarce in E. Timor
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 24, 1999; Page A23
DILI, East Timor, Sept. 23 � The concrete
cistern in the back of the house of an
independence leader contains evidence of
the horror of East Timor: a body lies rotting
in the well.
Neighbors say there may be more bodies underneath,
and the blood
splattered on the floors of the house attests to past
gruesome events.
But there is no one to perform the grim forensic
excavation of the fetid
well, and like so many other reports of multiple
killings in East Timor, the
number of victims in this one has yet to be
established.
Journalists and outside observers have not reached
large portions of East
Timor beyond the capital, Dili. But in Dili, some
reports of mass killings
and large-scale atrocities committed by
anti-independence militias and
their Indonesian military backers cannot be confirmed
or appear to have
been exaggerated.
"Where are all the mass graves?" wondered Brig. David
Richards, a
veteran officer in the multinational peacekeeping
force that arrived here
this week to subdue the violence. "In Sierra Leone
there were bodies all
over the place and there were recent graves. I
haven't seen that here."
The situation is "still a little hazy and sketchy,
but we cannot confirm
reports of mass killings," said Symeon Antoulas, a
local representative of
the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The extent of killings is one of the major mysteries
confronting the
peacekeepers. Human rights groups and diplomats said
that thousands of
people may have been killed since the results of a
Sept. 4 referendum
were announced indicating overwhelming support for
East Timor's
independence from Indonesia. Indonesian military
leader Gen. Wiranto
played down the reports of large-scale abuses,
claiming that fewer than
100 people had died.
In interviews over the past four days, Dili residents
and refugees who
were quick to assert that atrocities were committed
could not provide
specific evidence. A search of burned-out buildings
where mass killings
supposedly took place yielded no charred bones or
bodies.
Certainly, killings occurred. Some massacres
allegedly took place in the
still-unreachable countryside where the
anti-independence militias were
particularly strong. Several outside sources and the
Vatican have
described an incident in Suai, a western area of East
Timor, in which three
priests were gunned down and nearly 100 refugees
huddled in a church
were slaughtered.
But other reports seem unfounded. For example, the
Foundation for
Human Rights and Justice reported that 25 people were
killed when a
building of the Catholic diocese in Dili was burned.
The building, like
hundreds of others here, was gutted by fire, but an
inspection today found
no evidence of death.
The same group reported a massacre at the residence
of Bishop Carlos
Belo in Dili. His house also was burned, but four
nuns who are living in the
bishop's yard said there was no massacre and that the
militia has killed
one man there since the referendum.
Church-related organizations have reported that the
clergy was targeted
and that as many as nine priests were killed in the
recent violence. The
clergy who remained in Dili could confirm that four
priests in East Timor
died � the three in Suai and one in Dili.
Inspections based on other reports of mass murders at
the central police
station, the Tropical Hotel, the Tourismo Hotel and
the convent of the
Canosian Sisters in Dili also yielded no evidence �
no blood, no bones, no
knowledge of the events by the few neighbors who have
returned.
Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, the Australian commander of
the multinational
force, said his soldiers � now numbering about 3,000,
with 4,500
expected � cannot pursue the reports of mass
killings.
"We will need investigative resources well beyond the
capacity of our
forces" to determine if mass killings occurred, he
said today.
Some incidents have, however, been documented. On
April 17, months
before the referendum and before reporters were
forced by the violence
to leave East Timor, militiamen attacked the home of
independence leader
Manual Carascalo and killed his son and 12 to 20
others. The attack was
widely reported and immediately verified by
journalists.
Today, it was behind his home that the body was
discovered in the
cistern. The only body evident when looking down the
well appears to
have been a much more recent death than those at the
house in April.
