Guterres
Suffers Memory Loss
Monday 11 November 2002
Laksamana.Net
November 7, 2002
Former pro-Indonesia
militia leader Eurico Guterres, who three years ago
ordered his followers to murder pro-independence East Timorese, now denies
any wrongdoing and claims he is a victim of the government's desire to
deflect international criticism.
Guterres
(28) is being tried at Jakarta's special human rights court for one
of many atrocities committed in the months surrounding East Timor's 1999
vote
for independence.
On April
17, 1999, he ordered his fighters to kill pro-independence
supporters, including Manuel Viegas Carascalo and his family. Shortly
after
his speech, pro-Jakarta militiamen murdered 12 people at Carascalo's
residence in Dili, the capital of East Timor.
This is
what the militia leader said at the time: "From today, 17 April 1999,
I order all militias of pro-integration to clean up the traitors of
integration, arrest and kill them… I, Eurico Guterres
will be fully
responsible."
At the commencement
of his trial on October 24, 2002, he told the court he
felt no remorse because his violent actions in East Timor were based on
his
moral and legal obligation to fight for Indonesian sovereignty.
But on Thursday
(7/11/02), Guterres claimed he could not be held responsible
for the attack because he was not in control of the frenzied mob.
"I'm
not a monster who has no heart. I never ordered, directed or assisted
people to injure or kill other people," he was quoted as saying by
Agence-France Presse.
Reading
out a lengthy defense plea, the former leader of the Aitarak (Thorn)
militia group claimed he did not witness the attack and did not know who
did
it.
If that's
the case, Guterres should sue various international human rights
groups and media organizations for slander.
This how
human rights website Masters of Terror recounts the events of April
17, 1999.
On 17 April
1999 he [Guterres] was recorded on national and international
television as inciting his own and thousands of other militiamen from
every
district in East Timor gathered in a rally of 3-5000 to kill pro-independence
supporters. The rally, to launch an anti-independence 'cleansing' campaign
in
Dili, was attended by the governor and all top government and military
officials in East Timor. At this rally Eurico Guterres was made deputy
commander of the combined pro-integration forces PPI (Pasukan Pro-Integrasi),
a military-backed umbrella grouping of militias nominally led by Joao
Tavares.
He delivered
an inflammatory speech urging his men to 'capture and kill if
you need' those who had 'betrayed integration'. He singled out the family
of
former parliamentarian Manuel Carrascalao as 'traitors'. He concluded
by
stating that I, Eurico Guterres, 'will take full responsibility'. He then
led
one group of militia men and TNI members on a rampage around Dili, resulting
in thirteen deaths.
The group
first destroyed property at the houses of three independence
supporters. Manuel Pinto died in the third of these attacks, in which
Eurico
participated.
At about
1pm, still led by Eurico, the group arrived at the house of Manuel
Carrascalao, located next door to Eurico Guterres' Gardapaksi (later Aitarak)
Dili headquarters. Other militia members had gathered outside it earlier,
and
inside were about 100 pro-independence refugees. Sensing the impending
attack, Carrascalao and his daughter Christina had appealed for protection
directly to East Timor military commander Col Tono Suratman but the latter
did not respond. Carrascalao then appealed to some armed Brimob policemen,
who also refused to act immediately.
On 18 February
2002 Guterres was indicted in absentia before the Serious
Crimes Panel in Dili District Court over these 17 April attacks. Sixteen
others, including eight TNI members, are mentioned in the same indictment.
The indictment states clearly which members of the party of militiamen
and
soldiers were responsible for killing each of the twelve victims and
seriously injuring five others inside Carrascalao's house that day. Eurico
was allegedly present while bodies were dumped into the well.
Despite
all that, Guterres claims his current trial is politically motivated.
"This political trial is just a formality and in the end I will be
punished,"
he was quoted as saying by AFP. "The reality I'm facing now is extremely
ironic and painful. It's like I'm being dumped because I'm not useful
anymore."
Guterres'
lawyers earlier read out a separate defense plea, in which they
claimed the trial was "a political conspiracy".
"Does
Eurico Guterres not have any human rights that he has to be
sacrificed?" lawyer Suhardi Sumomulyono was quoted as saying by AFP.
"It is a
shame that such a big country as ours could bow to pressure," he
added.
The charges
against Guterres carry a maximum sentence of death, but the
prosecutor has asked for a sentence of only 10 years in jail on the grounds
that the defendant has been cooperative during the trial and had sought
reconciliation with his political adversaries in East Timor.
The prosecutor
also said Guterres was young and therefore still has plenty of
opportunities to change his attitude.
The Indonesian
military's pro-Jakarta militia proxies slaughtered about 1,000
people before and after East Timor's independence referendum on August
30,
1999.
Guterres
flatly denied he was in command of the homicidal militiamen. He said
they were not recruited but banded together because they shared the same
goal
of defending East Timor's integration with Indonesia.
The swaggering
defendant accused the media of twisting facts about the East
Timor violence by mainly blaming the militias and of supporting an
"imperialist conspiracy" to see the territory secede from Indonesia.
Indonesia's
special human rights court was formed earlier this year to
deflect foreign pressure to establish an international tribunal to deal
bring
the culprits of the East Timor carnage to justice.
Rights activists
say the series of trials for 18 suspects, including military
personnel, policemen, pro-Jakarta militiamen and former officials, charged
with crimes against humanity are a sham.
The court
in August acquitted four soldiers and two policemen, including the
former police chief of East Timor, on charges of allowing massacres to
take
place.
The acquittals
drew widespread criticism from Indonesian human rights groups,
as well as Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights.So
far only one suspect has been found guilty. The court in August sentenced
East Timor's former civilian governor Abilio Soares to three years in
jail
for failing to curb the violence. Prosecutors had demanded a sentence
of 10 years and 6 months.
Observers are now curious to see whether Guterres' close ties with senior generals will enable him to evade jail, or whether he really will become a sacrificial pawn.
His trial resumes on November 14.