East Timor: Concerns about Violence Rise

United Methodist News Feature

Contact: Linda Bloom · (212) 870-3803 · New York

United Methodists and other church members should urge their legislators or governments to pressure Indonesia to stop all forms of violence in East Timor, an ecumenical group says.

The appeal comes from the Humanitarian Project on East Timor, a member of the National Council of Churches' East Timor Working Group.

Rebecca Asedillo, an East Timor activist and former United Methodist missionary involved with the working group, said she has become extremely concerned about the situation in the Southeast Asian nation, which has been under occupation by Indonesia since 1975. The United Nations has organized a vote on independence for the territory on Aug. 8.

"It has been obvious that the human rights and security situation has been rapidly deteriorating for some time now," Asedillo said. "Paramilitary violence against innocent civilians suspected of having sympathies for or of espousing the independence cause is at the top of my concern." Indonesian President B.J. Habibie seems to have little control over these paramilitary leaders, she added.

She sees a parallel between East Timor and what happened in her native country, the Philippines, in the late 1980s, "when even the much-respected Cory Aquino was helpless in the face of right- wing vigilante groups attacking civilians..."

Military minds are behind the Indonesian groups, she believes, "but they let the undisciplined, untrained paramilitary do the dirty work for them (and) commit the barbarous and savage acts they do."

The U.S. Congress has approved a contribution of $6.5 million to the U.N. trust fund for the Aug. 8 vote on autonomy, but the East Timor Action Network, based in Washington, has stressed that more than money is needed to ensure a free and fair vote.

The network is urging Congress and the Clinton administration to pressure the Indonesian military to withdraw its troops and dismantle the paramilitary groups before the election.

In the House of Representatives, legislation supporting these goals includes House Resolution No. 97, which would freeze U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to Indonesia until its military presence is reduced in East Timor and paramilitary groups are disbanded; and House Resolution No. 1063, the International Military Training Transparency and Accountability Act, which would close loopholes allowing combat training to the Indonesia military.

In the Senate, Resolution No. 96 calls upon the Clinton administration to intensify its efforts to persuade the Indonesian government to shut down the paramilitary groups and grant full access to East Timor, allowing international human rights and humanitarian organizations and the press to enter.

May 28, 1999