UN Report reveals extent of Indonesian atrocities
Friday, 20 January 2006, 2:06 pm
Press Release: Dale Mills
East Timor counts its dead
By Dale Mills
A United Nations Report reveals the extent of past Indonesian atrocities.
During Indonesia’s occupation of Timor there were some 18,600 unlawful killings or disappearances between 1975 and 1999. The Report says that the Indonesian military was responsible for 70% of the killings.
8,500 were tortured. This included public beheadings, genital torture, burying victims alive and burning victims alive. Genitals were amputated to display to families. Napalm was also used.
''Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters,'' the UN Report found.
The Indonesian security forces ''consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war. The intentional imposition of conditions of life which could not sustain tens of thousands of East Timorese civilians amounted to extermination as a crime against humanity committed against the East Timorese population.''
The Report has been leaked to the Australian newspaper and was reported in its January 19 edition. The East Timorese government, now independent after a protracted national liberation struggle, wishes to downplay past Indonesian atrocities in order to cultivate economic ties. East Timor is one of the poorest countries in the region.
Indonesia, too, wants to downplay its past human rights abuses: only a few soldiers have been disciplined for the systematic murder and rape of East Timorese. During an independence referendum in 1999, departing Indonesian soldiers and pro-Indonesian militias killed about 1,500 civilians, as well as destroying a majority of East Timorese towns.
The invasion of East Timor by Indonesia in 1975 is still sensitive within Indonesia itself. Three films about the invasion and occupation have been banned in Indonesia, according to the January 13 Straits Times.
Australia’s approach has been to use a hard bargaining position against Timor over splitting oil reserves as both countries share a continental shelf which each country has claimed entitles it to exploitation of oil reserves.
Australia withdrew from an international tribunal which would have allowed objective assessment of each country’s merits as to where the border should be placed. Critics say the currently agreed border is in violation of international law, but Timorese had little choice but to agree to Australia’s terms. As both parties represent the richest and poorest countries in the region, the bargain is weighted heavily in Australia’s favour.
Australia is moving ever closer diplomatically and militarily to Indonesia. A new joint security pact is being signed during 2006, which will guarantee Australia will not interfere in Indonesia's affairs – meaning that Australia will not support secessionist movements such as the one in the Indonesian province of Aceh (pronounced ah-chay).
There are further provisions relating to defence and counter-terrorism. There has also been new cooperation in hosting joint maritime patrols, as well as allowing for a resumption of military cooperation between Australia’s special forces and Indonesia's elite Kopassus, according to a January 11 Reuters report. The IndonesianKopassus is thought to have been behind many of the human rights abuses in East Timor.
The UN Report has yet been published in full, but this is expected to occur in the next few days. When it is released, many in Australia and Indonesia will not want people to read its harrowing contents.
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CANBERRA (Reuters) - Indonesia killed up to 180,000 East Timorese through massacres, torture and starvation during its 24-year occupation, a U.N. investigation has found, an Australian daily said on Thursday.
Napalm and chemical weapons were used to poison food and water and some victims were burnt or buried while still alive, and others sexually mutilated, the Australian newspaper quoted the U.N. report saying.
It said 90 percent of the 180,000 deaths -- almost a third of the pre-invasion population -- were caused by starvation and disease, saying starvation was used as a weapon.
"Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters," the paper quoted the commission saying.
The 2,500-page report by the United Nations' Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation is based on interviews with 8,000 Timorese, refugees in Indonesia's West Timor, Indonesian military papers and foreign intelligence sources.
"Widespread and systemic executions, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and sexual slavery was officially accepted by Indonesia," the study said.
"The violations were committed in execution of a systematic plan approved, conducted and controlled by Indonesian military commanders at the highest level."
Indonesia State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said on Thursday East Timor and Indonesia had already agreed to work together for reconciliation and solving problems.
"Therefore, there is no need to look at the past because it won't help ... Better to look at the future," he told reporters when asked about the report.
"If we want to be fair and honest, Western countries had colonised Asia-African countries even worse."
The report said Indonesian soldiers and police were responsible for about 70 percent of the 18,600 unlawful killings or disappearances between the invasion in 1975 and a vote for independence in 1999.
The Australian did not say who caused the other 30 percent, but pro-independence guerrillas fought Indonesian forces throughout the occupation of the former Portuguese colony.
Indonesian forces "consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war", the paper quoted the report -- called Chega! (Enough! in Portuguese) -- saying.
"The intentional imposition of conditions of life which could not sustain tens of thousands of East Timorese civilians amounted to extermination as a crime against humanity."
The East Timor government has yet to release the report, which it received in October, but is expected to hand it to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan this week, the Australian said.
The report recommends reparations by Indonesia, and countries that provided backing for its military during the years of occupation, including Australia, Britain and the United States.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 after Portugal abruptly quit the harsh, mountainous area just north of Australia.
When Timorese voted to break away in 1999. it triggered a wave of violence by militias backed by Indonesian army elements.
The U.N. estimates about 1,000 East Timorese were killed in the violence, in which most of the towns were also destroyed.
Only a handful of people have been punished.
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