East Timorese students won a remarkable victory yesterday when they negotiated a seven-point agreement with the governor of East Timor and the Indonesian military commander to investigate jointly reports of recent killings of civilians by Indonesian soldiers.
Meanwhile the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in the East Timor capital of Dili told The Irish Times yesterday that they could confirm only 11 people killed or missing in Indonesian army actions in the last two weeks, contrary to earlier reports from East Timorese sources of 5060 dead.
After a 24-hour occupation of Dili's Parliament House, the students marched yesterday morning to the governor's residence to demand an end to military activity in the region around Alas vilage, where the killings took place.
Thousands gathered with banners on the lawns of the old Portuguese mansion on the seafront as a delegation was admitted inside, led by the deputy president of the East Timor University Student Council, Mr Aurello Ribeiro. In a first-floor room off a blue-carpeted corridor Mr Ribeiro, his long black hair tied back in a bow, and his advisers faced the East Timor military commander, Col Tono Suratman, and Governor Abilio Soares, a hardline opponent of independence for the former Portuguese colony, which was annexed by Indonesia in 1976.
Such a meeting has never taken place before in East Timor and reflects the spirit of reformasi in Dili since the downfall of Indonesia's President Suharto in May, according to Dili's Indonesian police chief, Mr Hulman Gulton.
Lounging on a carved high-back chair in the corridor as the meeting went on, and emphasising his point with a silver-handled cane, the police chief said: "Reformasi is going on all over, so people are getting a chance to express their opinions. However, there is a law and people must obey it."
The East Timor people's distrust of the Indonesian army is so deep, however, that the crowd outside greeted the agreement with suspicion, especially when it became known that the governor had refused to appear to announce the deal jointly with the student leader. "They never keep their promises," said one student bitterly. Some youths attempted to pull down the red-and-white Indonesian flag on the lawn, but were prevented by stewards, and the crowd dispersed without serious incident. Three truckloads of armed soldiers in riot gear which had been deployed behind the building then drove off.
Ironically, within minutes, against the background of a brilliant red sunset, three Indonesian soldiers emerged from the mansion and lowered the flag ceremonially for the night.
Under the agreement the students will be allowed to travel to Alas accompanied by other organisations concerned with human rights. Since the killing of three Indonesian soldiers by pro-independence Fretilin guerrillas on November 9th the region has been closed to reporters while the military conducts a follow-up operation. Col Suratman promised the students that he would order his troops to cease fighting. The Catholic Truth and Justice Commission and the Red Cross have been allowed into the district and unofficially discount the reports from refugees of up to 60 dead which ignited the student protest on Monday.
The commission, which monitors human rights violations in East Timor, has compiled a list of 11 names of those killed, missing or disappeared in the Alas region. It ascertained that since Saturday the situation has eased around Alas, where 8,000 people have been under curfew and denied electricity for two weeks.
However, the commission is concerned that the big military operation is moving in the direction of nine other villages as the soldiers attempt to recover 36 weapons seized by guerrillas on November 9th. The rebel commander, Tera Bulak, is said to be under great pressure in the forested area as Indonesian troops close in.
Outside Dili "there is no substantial change on how the military arrest, interrogate and torture people," said a commission source. Many rural inhabitants have fled the area in fear of their lives. Thirty young men from Atabae village have sought refuge in Dili and were presented to foreign correspondents yesterday by Kontras, an organisation investigating "disappeared" people. One young man wearing a Virgin Mary medallion described how in January four of his friends were killed by soldiers and he was injured in the same incident. Eleven East Timor people have disappeared and 28 have been killed by soldiers in the first six months of 1998, according to statistics compiled by the Justice and Peace Commission, which believes the real number is higher. Some 511 human rights violations, including rape, torture, arbitrary arrests, disappearances and intimidation, were recorded in 1997 and 369 in the first half of this year, indicating that despite reforms the situation has changed little. Nine of those shot dead in 1998 were in the region of Dili.
Students plan more demonstrations in the coming days to press their demands for an end to Indonesian army actions, a dialogue between political organisations and the military to prevent conflict, the withdrawal of the Indonesian army from East Timor, and the introduction of UN peacekeeping troops.
The students also want a branch office of the UN Human Rights Commission to be opened in East Timor. So far the Indonesian government has refused permission from a Human Rights Commission rapporteur in Jakarta to visit the region.