A number of priests have been killed this week in East Timor by pro-Indonesian militias, and churches and schools destroyed, in what seems to be a deliberate and organised assault on the Catholic Church, according to reports from the shattered territory.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservato Romano claims in today's edition that three priests, two from East Timor and one from Java, were among 100 people killed in a grenade attack on a church at Suai. The newspaper referred to the attack as a "barbarously perpetrated massacre" and claimed that local Catholic Church institutions on the island had been singled out for attack.
The victims include Father Francisco Barreto, head of the Caritas organisation in East Timor, reportedly killed near Dili. A message received yesterday by Trocaire said six priest had been assassinated, including Father Hilario Madeira, chief pastor of Suai, and his colleague, also Father Hilario.
By targeting Catholic priests and nuns along with churches and schools, the militias have struck at East Timor's most important vehicle for the expression of Timorese national identity. During the 24-year occupation by Indonesia, the Catholic Church was often the only local institution capable of providing health care and education, and articulating the trauma of the people. The attack on the home in Dili of Bishop Carlos Belo this week was a direct assault on the most prominent symbol of the church in East Timor. It was directed by Indonesian police, according to video smuggled out of Dili and shown on BBC yesterday.
Bishop Belo fled to the town of Baucau and after militias attacked his mother's home, where he was staying, he left for Darwin, Australia on Tuesday. The next day the second Catholic prelate in East Timor, Bishop Basilio da Nascimento, was driven from his monastery in Baucau where 200 people had sought refuge. "Bishop Basilio was injured; his arm was slashed by a militia member as he tried to protect refugees at his residence," said Father Andreas Calleja of the Salesian order in a telephone interview with a Jakarta newspaper. He said the bishop had fled with a number of priests, nuns and refugees to the hills. Some 200 priests and nuns have also been forced to flee Dili, where their churches and schools were burned down, Father Calleja said. The information received yesterday by Trocaire said Bishop da Nascimento had been arrested in Kupang, the capital of West Timor.
It also said that another priest, Father Antonio Goncalves, was arrested in Viqueque and that two leaders of the pro independence National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Mr Mahudu and Mr Mahunu, were arrested in Kupang. Ms Yeni Rosa Damayanti, an Indonesian activist and referendum observer, was also held, it said. In Australia, Bishop Hilton Deakin, chairman of Caritas Australia, the Catholic agency for overseas aid and development, described the "murderous attacks on the church" as part of "a much wider unjust genocide".
Mr Tony Story, spokesman for Caritas Australia, concluded: "I think what you are seeing is not random; it's more systematic and deliberate. We used to have sanctuary; now we have nothing."
Catholic Church representatives in Australia said they had received three reliable reports of militia killing priests and nuns and possibly 100 refugees in three separate towns in recent days. Caritas Australia said it believed a number of its East Timorese clergy, including Father Barreto, had been killed just outside Dili. "When Catholic Church members, who have offered relief and refuge to East Timorese, are struck down, we realise there is no respect for any life in East Timor," Bishop Deakin said. "Father Barreto was a gentle and peaceloving man. He headed the church's aid and development operations in East Timor and was also the parish priest of Dare. His death is a great loss."
Caritas said it had also heard that six nuns and a Jesuit priest were believed killed in Baucau. The Roman Catholic news agency MISNA reported that three priests were among those feared killed in a massacre at a church in Suai in the south-west of East Timor. The Jesuit Refugees Service told the agency one of the priests was 34-year-old Father Tarcisius Dewanto.
Liam Phelan reports from Dili: Less than a week after what should have been a day of celebration when the result of Timor's historic referendum was announced, the organisation which had supervised the voting was preparing to leave.
The head of UNAMET, Mr Ian Martin, announced that despite a marginal improvement in levels of security around Dili, the situation was still too unsafe to stay. "The state of the city is a disgrace with a significant number of militia members still roaming the streets with impunity. Dili is a ghost town with not very much left to loot," Mr Martin said.
Meanwhile, the squalor of the camp worsened as supplies ran dry and people became increasingly despairing. For the second day in a row a UNAMET convoy was stopped from getting supplies. UN staff members were directly threatened with weapons by the militia and forced to turn back.