The trial of Alex Manuputty, a Christian separatist leader in Maluku province, began in a Jakarta court yesterday for allegedly plotting a rebellion in the province, four days after a Jakarta court began hearing the case against Ja'far Umar Thalib, leader of the Laskar Jihad Muslim militia charged with provoking violence in the same province.
The trial of the Christian separatist was seen as an effort by authorities in Jakarta to hold Christian and Muslim extremists equally accountable for sectarian clashes that have devastated the province and claimed at least 6,000 lives since 1999.
Manuputty, aged 54, was arrested on April 17th and accused of plotting a rebellion and encouraging his followers to hoist banned separatist flags. He was born in Serui, West Irian. His organization - the Maluku Sovereignty Front - is a small group banned for its campaign to make the southern part of the Maluku archipelago an independent state.
The group wants Jakarta to allow a referendum on self-determination akin to the UN-supervised plebiscite held in East Timor in 1999. It insists that the Maluku islands, 2,600 kilometers east of Jakarta, should not be part of Indonesia. Eighty percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslims, but South Maluku's two million inhabitants are evenly divided between the two religious groups.
Separately, Jafar Umar Thalib is on trial for allegedly urging 2,500 members of his militia to "prepare for war" in April. Two days later, black-masked assailants armed with guns, grenades and daggers stormed a village near Maluku's capital Ambon, killing 13 Christians in a pre-dawn attack. Thalib's trial is being closely watched by the US, which hailed his arrest as a sign that Indonesia is cooperating in the US-led war on terrorism.
Foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda said yesterday that the US Government has no right to interfere in the process of the East Timor human rights trials in Indonesia. Asked to respond to a recent US statement of disappointment with the court trials of several Indonesian military, police and civil officials for alleged human rights abuses in East Timor, Wirayuda said the current process was still in its initial stage and many further legal steps could still be taken by the parties involved.
The human rights tribunal has so far passed sentence on eight of the 19 defendants in the trials. One of them, former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares, was sentenced to three years in jail, while seven others, military and police officers, were acquitted.
West Timor today is like the dark side of the moon, where the sun never shines. Perhaps only some dramatic massacre will open the eyes of the world. Antonius Seran Wilik, a retired teacher in Belu district near the East Timor border took 42 East Timorese refugees into his home on 4 September 1999. The Raihat sub-district, which borders directly with Bobonaro district in East Timor, had seen refugees before - in 1975. Then, they numbered about 4,000. In 1999 there were about 24,000 and Raihat's indigenous population was only 7,000. As a respected local leader, Antonius Seran Wilik ordered six square kilometres of land to be set aside for the refugees. They were also allowed to live in the gardens and backyards of the locals. Antonius said they had come from an area that had traditionally supplied brides for his people. Belu district has the same language and culture as East Timor.
At first the world took notice of the refugees. But when three members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff were murdered on 6 September 2000, nearly all international agencies helping the refugees pulled out of West Timor. This placed an increasing burden on the locals. Theft increased in the town of Atambua near the border. The refugees cut down forests and turned them into agricultural land. No locals had ever dared to do so for fear of being fined. But now the law was powerless. The locals worried about droughts and flooding for generations to come. But the refugees were hungry, and they were relatives. The province of East Nusa Tenggara of which West Timor is a part is the poorest in Indonesia.
The militias retained a strong influence in the West Timor camps. Many of them had been soldiers, or had been trained by them. The weapons are still there. The Indonesian army entered the area near the border. In January 2002 there were an estimated five battalions. Some welcomed the increased military presence hoping it would control the militias.
In West Timor the Catholic Church speaks through the priests. In Kefamenanu, priests rejected the establishment of a base by Infantry Battalion 744, formerly from East Timor. There was some intimidation against the church. A bomb was found at the bishop's palace in Atambua.
No one knows how many refugees there are - numbers are a political commodity for the Government in East Timor and Untas, the refugee umbrella organisation. In 2001 Untas, who said sabotaged a survey of refugees that wanted to ask their intentions on the grounds that it was too early to ask them to make up their minds. Official assistance for the refugees ended on 1 January 2002. This is a risky way to force them to make up their minds whether to go home or stay. Some are already using the word 'new residents' rather than 'refugees' to describe them. They have been living in these camps for nearly three years now. The Udayana commander has threatened to shoot rioters on sight.
Many West Timorese feel that political turmoil in Jakarta has resulted in scant attention being paid to peripheral areas such as theirs. One local politician has called for UN intervention. But this remains a sensitive issue.
While the new country of East Timor obtains a lot of international help, West Timor gets none. Many farmers near the border have turned to small trade across the border. The trade profits the soldiers and police guarding the crossings too. They take 5,000 rupiahs(one Australian dollar) in 'safety money' for every box that passes. A young policeman told me he earned 300,000 rupiahs a day from this.
The situation in West Timor is like a boil waiting to burst. Unless the refugee problem is solved, it will lead to conflict with the locals, especially over land. The continued presence of the militias has introduced a volatile element. In a stressful situation militias create fear. They feel they are at war and the law does not apply to them. Moreover, the excessive number of soldiers guarding the borders is becoming a burden on the local population.
President Xanana Gusmao of East Timor offered reconciliation. His visit to Atambua on 4 April 2002 did much to counter the fear in the camps that there would be an attack on East Timor once the United Nations was gone.
