Though the plight of East Timor has faded from the news these days, West Timor is still greatly concerned with the ongoing effects of the crisis. Three times in the past month and a half, I have traveled to East Timor. Thus I thought it might be useful to share some observations focused on the agenda for the transition to independence.

One of my trips was to translate for an assessment team sent by the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. Thus Jonah Chang, representing the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR); David Rodriguez, an executive in Mission Contexts and Relationships; and I gathered one evening with the 12 remaining pastors of the Protestant Church of East Timor. We were there to discuss the pastors' most urgent needs in the reconstruction process. After some awkward silences, they mentioned medicines, cooking equipment, and a few motorcycles—soon adding clothes, soap, pencils, and paper. It quickly became apparent that they needed everything because they had lost everything—except their faith. That faith was evident on a Sunday when we visited a full and lively church in the interior. There we witnessed the baptism of several babies born while their mothers were on the run from the militias.

Justice, Peace, and Reconciliation

The high point of the workshop was a simulation entitled "The Militia's Return." We took the common problem of militia members' trying to negotiate for a safe return to their villages. Then we used this problem to practice the skills learned in the workshop. One group of participants represented militia members; a second group, their victims; and a third group, the mediators. The participants didn't reach an agreement on whether or not the militia members could return, but they did agree on the necessity of a judicial process. The victims were not the only ones who wanted this. Those playing the parts of militia members also saw a judicial process as the only thing that could offer them protection from the people's wrath. D

Grace Protestant Church in Akanunu, near Dili, torched by pro-integration militia. Photo by John Chamberlin.

The question then was: "Should militia members be held in detention in Dili or be allowed to go home while awaiting trial?" One victim, whose brother had been killed by militia members in real life, said: "Following the example of Jesus, I can perhaps forgive you, but you still have to take responsibility for what you did. We are trying to put our lives back together and rebuild our village, and we don't want to have to look at your faces while we do these things. You'd better just stay in Dili."

A general question also arose: "Can we build justice and peace at the same time, or do we need to see justice done before we can begin to be at peace?" D

East Timorese refugees in West Timor. Photo by John Chamberlin.

The question of reconciliation has become a testing ground in East Timor. In the villages, residents who are active in negotiation for the return of refugees, the resolution of property issues, and other political issues are at the same time making an early bid for political leadership. People with a proven ability to resolve conflicts would be credible candidates in the national elections. But the students don't really trust the current generation of politicians to hold a consensus together. They want to go straight to the people as a check against the infighting that has already begun. Several said they thought CNRT would benefit from the workshop. But doing workshops can become a problem in itself because people are going to fight over who can control the reconciliation process and workshops sometimes "empower" people in ways not always intended by innocent trainers.

At present, one of the main factors delaying the return of refugees from West Timor is the lack of a judicial process to hold accountable those responsible for the terrible destruction following the referendum. Many refugees who fled East Timor have family members who belong to the militias or are members of the Indonesian military. These family members are afraid to go back to East Timor without some assurance of a fair trial. In East Timor, there is general support for the effort to try war criminals in Indonesia. This would be a chance to reform the Indonesian military and clean up the judicial system. But the East Timorese are determined that an international tribunal is also essential.

Economic Needs

East Timorese children raid the dumpster looking for something to sell. Photo by John Chamberlin.

The dollar-based economy is symbolized by the Olympia Hotel, from whence UNTAET staff descend in the morning and to which they return in the evening. Like them, their money sets foot on shore and immediately returns from whence it came. The final irony is that the Olympia is said to be dumping its waste into the bay. East Timorese who work on the ship confirm this. Whether or not it is true literally, it is certainly true symbolically. D

Jonah Chang stands beside the dock of the floating Olympia Hotel, where many foreign journalists, UN staff, and NGO workers live and where English is the universal language. Photo by John Chamberlin.

While East Timorese workers are paid between $100 and $200 a month, foreign workers are paid $6000 per month—an insulting salary spread. The foreigners travel in land cruisers; the local people, on foot. And just as anyone who wanted to deal with the Indonesians had to speak their language, now everyone has to speak English or be relegated to the status of a voiceless peasant. Thus thousands of capable East Timorese are left to sit on their porches and watch the parade go by because they were educated in Indonesian instead of English or Portuguese. Sad to say, few staff members of the UN and the international NGOs have a clue about the talent and local knowledge they are wasting.

In a similar way, ignorance about the indigenous economy threatens to send the UN down the same blind alley that Indonesia followed. Clearly, 80 percent of East Timorese are subsistence farmers—or would be if they could live in their villages again; could get appropriate local seed, not commercial hybrids that deteriorate after the second or third planting; and could find a way to turn the soil. (In many areas, the cattle used to prepare the ground were shot by the militias and left to rot in the fields.)

These self-employed subsistence farmers should be seen as East Timor's main economic resource and the foundation of its future economy. They have a wider range of skills than most urban dwellers and are able to provide for themselves and their families with little more working capital than a machete and a digging stick. They should be feeding their urban cousins instead of joining the ranks of the urban unemployed. A strong agricultural base will also give the country some breathing room in preparation for the baby boom that is certain to follow the restoration of peace.

Right now, both Dili, the capital, and Baucau, the second-largest city, are swollen with people who would be in the villages if they had reliable public transport, minimal health services, and reasonable food security until the next harvest. Many people did not return to their villages in time to plant a crop this season. So food aid will be necessary for a longer time than initially thought. It will need to continue until July or August for rice farmers and the south coast and until February 2001 for corn farmers and the north coast.

Communication Needs

There are indications that UNTAET wants to control mass communication in order to reduce conflict. Yet, rumors float on the wind, and there is no way to counter them. People in the regional towns and villages hear nothing of the outside world for weeks at a time. Thus regionalism becomes more and more entrenched.

Along with food, the UN should be distributing shortwave radios and providing paper and presses so that the East Timorese can begin an open dialogue about their future. Their need to say in public what has happened to them—to express their grief and their hope—is being stifled by the lack of mass communications. Let a thousand newspapers blossom. Let Tetun, a spoken language indigenous to East Timor, establish itself as a written language in print. Let the people speak and read and write and debate their future.

The Goal: Self-Governance

There needs to be a process whereby people have a chance to say what kind of governance they want and what part they want to play in it. There also needs to be a way of defining the time when the people will be ready for self-governance to begin. This will give them the sense that they are moving toward independence and will relieve a lot of their feeling of being recolonized—this time, by the UN.

Every time I go to East Timor, there are visible signs that things are getting better. Building materials have finally come, and many people can be seen raising the roof beams over their once-ruined homes. Some locally grown vegetables have appeared in the markets. A few buses have begun to run outside of Dili. In West Timor, a tide of refugees has at last begun to flow out of the camps to begin the journey home.

East Timor in the Year 2000

In Dili's business district, 80 to 90 percent of the structures have been leveled. There is no post office, telephone, TV station, newspaper, or potable running water. There is no bank in all of East Timor.

The United Methodist Church relates to the Protestant Church of East Timor (GKTT). The Rev. Arlindo Marcal heads the GKTT as moderator. The Rev. Francisco M. de Vasconcelos is General Secretary. Around September 7, 1999, a report went out that De Vasconcelos had been executed by militia. He learned about his alleged death two days later. He says he now holds a "back from the grave" theology.

Half of the 30,000 members of the GKTT were Indonesians, and most of these members have fled East Timor. Of the 30 Protestant churches that existed before the referendum on independence, fewer than half are left.

UMCOR has assessed the needs of East Timor and will be providing aid through the GKTT. Aid will include grants to purchase tractors, motorcycles, and other vehicles, along with funds to provide parenting educators in the churches that remain.

—Jonah Chang for UMCOR

UMCOR will not be shipping goods to East Timor from the United States. The best way to respond is to give to Advance #240225 "East Timor Relief." Goods and services purchased in East Timor will help to contribute to the local economy.

What Good Can Youth Mission Trips Do?
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