On 10/7/01, the second day of the trial, Joni Marques made an initial statement to the Court in which he accepted responsibility for several of the charges he faces, including torture, three individual murders and the murder of a group of clergy in September 1999 throughout Lautem district. However, the Special Panel declined to accept the statements of the alleged commander of Team Alpha militia as admissions of guilt and the trial is proceeding.
Marques, together with Joao da Costa (also known as Lemorai), Mautersa Monis and Gilberto Fernandes, testified that the notorious Team Alpha militia was created by the Indonesian armed forces in the mid 1980s and shared a base with Kopassus at the headquarters of Battalion 745 in Los Palos, Lautem district. Several claimed that they were given orders to guard the base and to accompany Kopassus on patrols to search for FALINTIL in the area. Each also testified that they witnesses 1st Lieutenant Syaful Anwar, Deputy Commander of KOPASSUS, torture and beat to death a FALINTIL supporter in April 1999.
Joni Marques also told the Court that he had accompanied KOPASSUS on a joint training exercise with Australian troops in Malaysia in the early 1990s, during which he played the “enemy” role of FRETILIN during guerilla warfare exercises.
Gonsalo dos Santos, Alarico Fernandes and Paolo da Costa also testified that they were ordered by Marques to burn houses in several villages around Leuro, near Los Palos, in September 1999. They claimed that villagers from this area were transferred first to the Battalion 745 base and from there to the port of Kom, so they could be transported to Kupang, West Timor.
The trial continues on Monday 16/7/01.
This message came from the Judicial System Monitoring Programme news service:
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Judicial
System Monitoring Programme (JSMP)
Added June 9
JSMP is a new human rights project set
up by the East Timorese Jurists’ Association and the Timorese/international
organisation La'o Hamutuk. JSMP aims to assist the United Nations Transitional
Administration in East Timor, the East Timorese public and the international
community by making recommendations for ongoing reform of the fledgling
judicial system of East Timor.
The main objective of the programme
is to improve the quality of justice provided by the newly established
judicial system, and to promote human rights and the rule of law in a meaningful
and transparent manner for the people of East Timor through:
KOPASSUS (the Indonesian military special forces) & Team Alfa militia:
Jun
14 CSUCS: Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 - East Timor Chapter
Report added June 25
"Past Child Recruitment and Deployment:
The Indonesian armed forces provided pro-integration militias – particularly
KOPASSUS special forces – with training, arms and funding. “The
first time they took me from my house we had to rape a woman and then kill
anything we could find like animals and people. They ordered us to rape.
We did this together. Everyday we were taken by them by car to burn houses,
kill animals and harass people ... They screamed and shouted when they
had killed people and showed off their machetes covered in blood and said
‘Eat the People’.” Former Militia Child Soldier, 16 years old." Coalition
to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
May
9 GLW: UN lets Indonesian military off the hook Article
with comments from BACK DOOR updated May 16
"The UN’s response to a
report written by James Dunn, a former Australian consul to East Timor
and a prominent writer and analyst on East Timor, and leaked to the media
two weeks ago, was also very telling. Dunn’s report sheeted blame for the
killings, destruction and mass deportation of East Timorese to the Indonesian
Armed Forces (TNI), particularly Kopassus officers who organised
and led covert operations in East Timor some months before the independence
ballot." Vanya Tanaja
Major Report Apr
30 KPP HAM's Secret Report on Crimes Against Humanity in ETimor
Link to full text added May 3
"39. After President Habibie launched
the two options, these old militia groups were revived and supported in
order to achieve victory for Autonomy. Besides this, military units for
young people were supported, which according to Udayana Military Region
Commander Major-General Adam R. Damiri in his report to the Minister Coordinating
the Fields of Political and Security were “Pro-integration groups driven
by young people to establish patriotic organisations. According to various
reports, these young people were members of Gada Paksi (Young Guard Establishing
Integration), which was recruited, trained and funded by the TNI, especially
Kopassus, in 1994-1995. Eurico Gueterres, the leader of the Aitarak
militia, and the leaders of the BMP militia in Dili were figures in the
Gada Paksi. These militia groups were later recruited into the Integration
Fighting Force with its Commander Joao Tavares and deputy Eurico Gueterres
and head of staff Herminio da Costa da Silva. ...
110. Around 10.10 the Aitarak leadership
Eurico Gutteres (P:3) was present, in a Kijang driven by a member of Kopassus
{Special Forces Command]. ...
IV.13 The murder of the church group
at Los Palos 25 September 1999 (E:152):
Based on statements that were able to
be collected, it is known that on 25 September 1999 an attack took place
on a church group that was journeying to Baucau, by the Tim Alfa militia
group (P:637) consisting of Joni Marques (P:783), Joao da Costa (P:785),
Manuel da Costa (P:786), and Amilio da Costa (P:791).
In its investigation visit to East Timor,
the Investigative Commission met with the suspects who were suspected of
carrying out executions outside the process of law, in the Interfet detention
centre in Dili, and obtained a direct statement from Joni Marques (B:797).
The Investigative Committee also obtained statements that the militia group
Tim Alfa had been formed and trained by a Kopassus unit. Based on
the testimony of a perpetrator to the Investigative Commission, the involvement
of a member of a Kopassus unit who had ordered the killing was stated.
There were nine victims of the mass killings:
Agus Mulyawan (K:780), Indonesian journalist; Celeste de Carvalho (K:773),
Head Sister; Erminia Cazzaniga (K:779), nun; Erminia Rudy Barreto (K:&&&);
Fernando dos Santos (K:774); Jacinto F. Xavier (K:775); a youth of 13 (K:782);
Titi Sandora Lopez (K:781); Valerioda Conceicao (K:776). ...
The involvement of the civilian and military
apparatuses including the police cooperated with the pro-integration militia
groups in crimes against humanity. This represented abuse of power and
authority and resulted in the involvement of military institutions as well
as civil agencies. To be more specific, the evidence shows officials in
the civil and military institutions, including the police, that are thought
to have been involved, comprised, although were not limited to the following
names: ...
17. Commandant of Company, B-Battalion
744: a Kopassus Officer/SGI BKO Korem Dili: Captain Tatang"
Indonesian Commission of Investigation
into Human Rights Violations (KPP HAM)
Major Report Apr
25 Suppressed UN report on East Timor destruction Link
to full text of report added Apr 30
" ... 14. Militia violence against supporters
of independence began early in 1999, and in earnest in April when Operasi
Sapu jagad (Operation Clean Sweep) was launched. However, the main thrust
of the violence occurred between 4th September, when the results of the
plebiscite were announced in Dili, and the end of September, when the INTERFET
force was able to restore security to the central and eastern sectors of
East Timor. This operation of massive destruction, ransacking and deportation
was also devised by the TNI when it was realised that the plebiscite was
likely to go against integration. Accordingly, in July the TNI began developing
Operasi Wiradharma, the evacuation of East Timor, an operation which apparently
also used the code-name, Guntur. The plan, which was devised at least two
months before it was launched, was commanded by TNI Kopassus officers,
with Major Generals Zakky Anwar Makarim and Adam Damiri playing key command
roles. According to informed sources in Jakarta, it was planned to deport
most of East Timor’s population to West Timor, from where they would later
be dispersed to other parts of the archipelago. The planners seemed to
believe that the violence would persuade the MPR, the Indonesian Parliament,
to reject the outcome of the ballot. The operation began in the immediate
aftermath of the announcing of the results of the plebiscite, and was focused
on the deportation of a large part of the population of East Timor, the
destruction of most houses and buildings, and on a campaign of terror against
the staff of UNAMET, foreign journalists and other foreigners present in
East Timor at that time. ...
V. The Role of the Indonesian Military,
the Formation of the Militia and the campaign of Terror:
...
18. It is against this background that
the setting up of the militia and the way it resorted to brutal tactics
need to be considered. The origins of Timorese para-military units have
already been examined. The militia as it existed in 1999, and as an extension
of the para-military force Halilintar, go back to the eighties when East
Timorese para-military units were again formed, specifically to involve
the local population in operations not only against Falintil,
the armed resistance, but against the growing phenomenon of passive
resistance. The best known of these early units was Team Alpha (Tim
Alfa) which, with Team Saka (Tim Saka), was formed in 1986 in the eastern
sector of East Timor by a Kopassus officer, Captain Luhud Pandjaitan,
reportedly acting on orders from his commander, then Colonel Prabowo. Team
Alpha’s members were trained and paid, and their operations against
pro-independence elements organised, by Indonesian military officers. Another
significant move was the setting up of the Gada Paksi (Gadu Penegak Integrasi—Guards
to Uphold Integration) in 1994, also reportedly by Prabowo. The Gada Paksi
was conceived as a way of mobilizing young pro-integration activists. ...
VIII. The Major Killings and their
Characteristics: ...
e. Lautem/Lospalos
36. The eastern districts of East Timor
did not suffer the same level of violence, and several villages, among
them Uatolari and Viqueque, virtually escaping destruction by the militia.
Individual acts of violence or killing did begin early, however.
On 17 March 1999 Mariano Soares, a prominent citizen of Triloka village
disappeared, and is believed to have been killed. A week later another
Timorese was killed by TNI troops in the Baucau district. On 17 April members
of Team Alpha killed Virgilio de Sousa, a prominent independence
supporter in his home in Bauro Village in Los Palos. In August, in the
eve of the plebiscite Los Palos village chief, Verissimo Quintas was brutally
killed by local militia, following an attack on his house.
37. The worst period for the Los Palos/Baucau
occurred well after the plebiscite. On 12 September four Timorese were
killed, reportedly by TNI troops, at the Lospalos Military sub-district
command, and on the same day 5 persons were said to have been killed at
Baucau by Battalion 745 troops. The worst massacre in the area occurred
on 25 September, five days after INTERFET troops landed at Dili. Team Alpa
members killed and mutilated nine people, including nuns and deacons and
an Indonesian journalist, on the road between Los Palos and Baucau. The
bodies were placed in their vehicle which was then pushed into the Luro
River. Team Alpha operated under the control of Kopassus
officers, and the local TNI commander. According to the KPP HAM report
a member of Kopassus was implicated in the ordering of this killing.
...
Annex A: Senior Indonesian Military
Officers who should be Investigated in Relation to Crimes Against Humanity
in East Timor: ...
14. Lieutenant Colonel Sudrajat
AS
1998-99 Commander Kodim 1629 (Lautem,
Lospalos)
Comments: Commander of the district in
which Team Alpha was active, and has been accused of having supplied
weapons to the militia.
Assessment: According to the KPP
HAM list he is one of the officers implicated in the events of 1999,
and his role should therefore be investigated. ...
Annex B: Select Chronology:
...
September 25: Massacre in Lautem area
when Team Alpha militia ambush vehicle carrying nuns, brothers and
an Indonesian journalist. Nine person are killed and their bodies mutilated.
... "
Australian diplomat James Dunn, an independent
consultant to the Chief Prosecutor for the UN Transitional Administration
in East Timor's (UNTAET)
Mar
12 Age: Burchill: Not guilty on Timor? Explain this then
Article
"Why did Australia have to train Kopassus
officers, widely known for their brutality and disregard for basic human
rights? Closer ties between Australia's armed forces and Indonesia's (TNI),
in the form of joint training exercises and the secretly negotiated 1995
Australia-Indonesia Security Agreement, clearly gave Australia no influence
whatsoever over the behavior of TNI in 1999, when they and their militia
proxies razed East Timor." Scott
Burchill, lecturer, international relations, Deakin University
Nov
1999 NI: Make your own militia Chronology added May 24
"How the military did it and who knew:
July 1998: Ausaid
worker Lansell Taudevin tells Australian embassy officials that the Indonesian
army is forming and arming militia gangs. Around 5,000 West Timorese (ethnically
identical to East Timorese, though Muslim rather than Roman Catholic) are
recruited into militias by the Indonesian army. More recruits are brought
in from Java.
4 November 1998:
400 élite troops from Indonesia’s notorious Kopassus Group
4 unit – trained to track down and eliminate political dissidents – arrive
in the port of Atapupu. ... " new internationalist
Sept
27 1999 Noam Chomsky: East Timor Retrospective - An overview and lessons
"Terror and destruction
began early in the year. The TNI forces responsible have been described
as "rogue elements" in the West, a questionable judgment. There is good
reason to accept Bishop Belo's assignment of direct responsibility to commanding
General Wiranto in Jakarta. It appears that the militias have been managed
by elite units of Kopassus, the "crack special forces unit" that
had "been training regularly with US and Australian forces until their
behaviour became too much of an embarrassment for their foreign friends,"
veteran Asia correspondent David Jenkins reports. These forces are "legendary
for their cruelty," Benedict Anderson observes: in East Timor they "became
the pioneer and exemplar for every kind of atrocity," including systematic
rapes, tortures and executions, and organization of hooded gangsters. They
adopted the tactics of the U.S. Phoenix program in South Vietnam that killed
tens of thousands of peasants and much of the indigenous South Vietnamese
leadership, Jenkins writes, as well as "the tactics employed by the Contras"
in Nicaragua, following lessons taught by their CIA mentors. The state
terrorists were "not simply going after the most radical pro-independence
people but going after the moderates, the people who have influence in
their community." "It's Phoenix," a well-placed source in Jakarta reported:
the aim is "to terrorise everyone" -- the NGOs, the Red Cross, the UN,
the journalists."
Noam
Chomsky
BD: Calls for International War Crimes Tribunal - A collection of recent reports, articles and news [section on East Timor's Judicial System]