TIMOR: Debate over whether to have reconciliation process
6/09/01 17:23:49 | Asia Pacific Programs
Audio at http://www.abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/m273643.asx
Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the Suai massacre in East Timor,
when
Indonesian backed militias stormed the Suai church slaughtering hundreds
of
civilians seeking sanctuary, after a terror campaign following East Timor's
independence vote. So far no-one has been indicted for the Suai killings.
There are diverging views about whether prosecuting those responsible
for
war crimes will benefit East Timor as a nation. Xanana Gusmao wants
amnesties considered for those involved in the killings and is pushing
for
a reconciliation approach. But others fear a reconciliation process will
allow war criminals to re-enter East Timor with impunity.
Transcript:
(SFX of women wailing at Suai massacre memorial)
FITZGERALD: Widows in Suai grieving for the victims of the Suai Church
massacre. On September the 6th 1999, one week after the UN ballot that
set
East Timor on the path to independence, militia groups, backed by the
Indonesian military, slaughtered hundreds of people who had sought
sanctuary in the Church. The victims included women, children and priests.
Two years later an extraordinary meeting is taking place in a thatched
community hall behind the church.
East Timor militia leader Helio Caetano Monis has returned to Suai, the
town his militia comrades gutted two years ago and he is facing a crowd
of
hundreds of villagers.
Helio lives in a refugee camp in West Timor and has returned to his
hometown, to ask his relatives and neighbours to forgive the violence
two
years ago and to allow him and his comrades to return home.
His visit is sponsored by the United Nations and receives a favourable
reception from the Suai community representatives who are lining the front
benches of the meeting.
This youth leader tells Helio he can return to Suai providing those who
committed the killings face justice.
There are no raised fists or angry accusations, just hundreds of villagers
staring intently at Helio's face.
Outside the meeting Suai man Sylvania Lopez says despite all the deaths
the
community wants the militia leaders to return so the civilians trapped
in
the West Timor camps can come back home with them.
LOPEZ: "Yeah I'm not angry with him because now I want peace, I
want peace
with him, with them."
FITZGERALD: And how about the other people in Suai, how do they feel
if he
returns to Suai with his militia men?
LOPEZ: "I think everybody will be happy because they can come together,
we
can have reconciliation with them about front for East Timor."
FITZGERALD: Later back at the sprawling UN compound in Dili, I asked
the
29-year old Helio Caetano Monis why he had returned to face the community
which his militia comrades devastated two years ago. He says he is bringing
messages of reconciliation from the refugee camps on the border.
MONIS: "We ask for apologies for everything that happened in the
past, and
we see this as a collective trouble of all of us. So we are prepared to
forget everything and we are ready to start a new life together in the
independence of East Timor. We all say congratulations for everybody for
Falantil, for CNRT, for everybody who has struggled for change for years
against Indonesian occupation, also against our choice."
FITZGERALD: How difficult was it for you to go back to Suai today and
face
all those people?
MONIS: "The difficulty for me is that after the ballot we all leaving
East
Timor and my friends in Suai or my brother or my friends in Kovalima they
have accused me, my family that we must take responsibility with everything
happening. And I think it is ok but I should clarify first to them that
I
am not as what they are thinking. But if they don't believe me I just
ask
them please let me come to justice, to a court."
FITZGERALD: Some people in West Timor must be unhappy about you wanting
to
pursue reconciliation because they want to keep the past alive. Will you
face any pressure or threats from them?
MONIS: "I'm aware that I will be facing many difficulties, especially
many
of my friends will hate me because it's so that I have left them in their
struggle, but I will accepting, I hopefully, one day I am not wrong and
they will follow what I do today."
FITZGERALD: Helio has pledged to bring back as many as seven thousand
refugees, which explains why the UN has sponsored his visit to East Timor.
The visit is part of a reconciliation campaign, orchestrated by the UN,
and
backed by national leader Xanana Gusmao.
The UN has established a Commission for Reception, Truth and
Reconciliation, which will steer the reconciliation process between victims
and lower ranking militia members.
Vicki Tcheong works for the commission and says many victims of the
massacres want to be able to confront the perpetrators to help them
overcome past trauma.
TCHEONG: "They usually had very democratic way of resolving conflicts
in
the community level and what they used to do is lay the mat on the floor
and then start chewing their betel nuts and smoke the corn leaf, dried
corn
leaf tobacco, and then start talking to each other about problems. And
they
had a middle man who is probably in the modern term the judicial head
in
the village who would act as the mediator and talk between the perpetrators
and the victims and resolve the issue. So it's not really a new thing
for
the community."
FITZGERALD: The push to reconcile the people of East Timor and the militia
leaders has its critics though.
Within the UN it's created a tug of war between staff working on the
well-resourced reconciliation program and the under-resourced Serious
Crimes Unit, which is prosecuting war criminals.
James Dunn has worked with the Serious Crimes Unit and was an Australian
diplomat in East Timor over 30 years ago.
He wants to see an International Tribunal held to prosecute East Timor's
war criminals and is critical of the UN's emphasis on reconciliation.
He
says it could further delay the trials of detained militia leaders and
derail the prosecution of more serious war criminals.
DUNN: "There is talk now of offering an amnesty to the militia leaders
in
West Timor, and that would mean of course that are they going to release
these guys from prison? Because these are the small people, they're
ordinary fighters who were given orders to attack, were given drugs in
most
cases by Indonesian officers, and of course they killed and they're now
deeply remorseful. So whether they're going to be released or not I don't
know, but they've gone through a UN process.
"And there are different views on this, I mean at the one end you
have
Xanana and the UN representative who had been negotiating this, the return
of the refugees from West Timor. And you have people who have had relatives
killed or themselves have been brutalised, been tortured who are really
not
so ready to forgive and forget. It's not over yet because you know I've
talked to many people who are very fond of Xanana and want him to be
president but don't agree with this process of forgiving and forgetting.
"I think it has to go a little way ahead, there has been a process
of
bringing these people back and in some cases to confront the community
and
to talk over whether they'll be allowed back. And I think by and large
it's
been a positive process, but I don't know what's going to happen when
the
really bad militia leaders come back, I mean those who like Jaoa Tevarres
who were responsible for murder over a long period of time. I think that's
going to be more difficult.
"And for me, the big issue in any case is what about the commanders?
I mean
what we mustn't forget is that what happened in 1999 was a carefully
planned conspiracy by a group of senior Indonesian military officers with
the knowledge of Wiranto to sabotage this process of self-determination
and
prevent the loss of East Timor."
FITZGERALD: Back in Suai, there are fresh flowers on the memorial stones.
At the church hall Sister Elsa Fernades shows me the simple graves of
the
slaughtered priests. She says the community reconciliation meeting has
stirred up painful and upsetting memories.
FERNADES: "I am really sorry now because on the 6th of September
1999 is
something that is hard to forget, it's very, very, I don't know how to
explain it. One day you can look at their friends who came from Atambua,
they said we feel like the 6th of September. Looking at his face we
remember everything that already passed, especially the priests.
"And at the same time they said please, tell the people out there
to be
back and then so that they can see how we are. If we are happy they are
also happy and tell them to come back. And the others said please, when
they come back accept them, forgive them."
[The sound from the Suai memorial service was from the documentary film
Circle of Stones by Jenny Hughes]
Transcripts from programs "AM", "The World Today",
"PM", the "7:30 Report"
and "Lateline" are created by an independent transcription service.
The ABC
does not warrant the accuracy of the transcripts. ABC Online users are
advised to listen to the audio provided on this page to verify the accuracy
of the transcripts.