For the first time, clandestine East Timorese fighters are building bombs. When one went off accidentally recently it introduced a new element into the East Timor problem and underscores the urgency of a resolution. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry says the explosives were intended to kill civilians in Dili indiscriminately. That is unproven, but the resort to bombs shows frustration is rising among young East Timorese over the diplomatic stalemate.
The incident is awkward for all sides. If the clandestine group the Indonesian military hold responsible for the explosion has any strong international connection at all, it may be as much with the one overseas East Timorese Indonesia regards as an ally - Abilio Araujo - as with resistance spokesperson Ramos Horta.
Furthermore, the alleged leaders of this group are now in the Jakarta embassy of Austria, which just hosted a UN-sponsored intra-East Timorese dialogue that Indonesia supports. Foreign Minister Ali Alatas wants the 'terrorists' back and says refusal could imperil Indonesian-Austrian relations. But the Austrians reject the tag and want more time to consider their asylum application.
The Indonesian press has carried several detailed accounts of the incident, mostly quoting military sources. The clandestine group they mention is the Timorese Socialist Association (Associacao Socialista Timorense, AST). This group occasionally pops up in press and solidarity reports.
In early 1995 AST joined a coalition of East Timorese clandestine groups in Indonesia called CCONTLI that, besides AST, included Renetil, Group Onze Doze (1.2), and the anti-violence committee Anvisti.
According to the Portuguese newspaper Publico in April 1994, AST supported the December 1993 London 'reconciliation' meeting, in which Abilio Araujo played a prominent role, and which was in some ways a precursor to the UN-sponsored dialogue. Other resistance movements, and Xanana himself, condemned the meeting at the time. Insiders confirm that AST was 'his' organisation at least in 1994, though by no means all members supported his London initiative.
Top Indonesian military spokesman Brig-Gen Mokodongan was quick to link the explosion in Demak, Central Java, on 13 September 1997 to their favourite bete noir Ramos Horta. Horta replied - perhaps disingenuously - that he rejected the use of bombs for any purpose.
The Indonesian government does not appreciate the role Ramos Horta has played in keeping the movement away from terrorism. He has done this by publicly placing a lot of faith in a diplomatic process mediated by the UN General Secretary. Meanwhile, no report has mentioned Abilio Araujo, who now has substantial business links with Indonesians in East Timor. If Araujo indeed still supports the clandestine movement, it would indicate (not so much Araujo's duplicity but) the unanimity of East Timorese dreams of freedom.
More importantly, neither Ramos Horta nor Abilio Araujo can hope to contain the use of increasingly violent methods whilst their diplomacy offers no progress. The parallel with burgeoning Hamas radicalism after Netanyahu effectively torpedoed the peace process is alarming.
According to Mokodongan, AST general-secretary Avelino Maria Coelho da Silva ('Dr Shalar Kossi') rented a house in Semarang, Central Java, in 1996 for the organisation's militant 'Brigada Negra' (Black Brigade). In May 1997 an Australian citizen, only named as Geoffrey, was sent by the Darwin East Timorese emigre community to the Semarang house and gave a month-long course in demolition for 'Section B' of the Brigade.
In July 1997 a group of three men from the Brigade moved into another house in Plamongan estate, Demak, 18 km east of Semarang, and began to construct a series of bombs using TNT. The military said that while simple, they were powerful enough to penetrate a centimetre of steel or even bring down a high-rise building.
Twenty of the bombs, as well as small quantities of assorted ammunition, a video camera, tape recorder, small radio and handphone together with books, letters and some cash for the guerrillas, left for East Timor with several other men on 6 September.
However, when the bomb-makers in Demak stored their work under the refrigerator rather than in it, one went off, injuring the only occupant present in the house and blowing out the rear wall and roof of the kitchen. The military found 11 bombs, along with a jerrycan of chemicals and a computer disk containing names within the organisation. The unprecedented use of explosives brought the case to the attention of the highest level in the military.
They quickly arrested nine men in the organisation's Semarang house - their names appear in Amnesty International releases, though some confusion remains and they have not been allowed visits by lawyers or friends - as well as two men getting off the ship in Dili harbour bearing the other bombs and equipment, and one waiting for them.
Avelino, his wife, two children, and two other men meanwhile entered the Austrian embassy on 19 September and asked for asylum. Gaoled resistance leader Xanana appealed to Austria to protect them. Several others are still being sought.
The military claim the bombs were intended to disrupt the installation of East Timor Governor Abilio Soares in Dili on 17 September. This led the Foreign Minister to insist that Avelino and Nuno Vicente Pereira Saldanha (both 35), still holed up in the embassy, are terrorists.
Clearly the incident is part of an increasing level of militancy on the part of the East Timorese resistance. Human Rights Watch Asia has shown recently that this violence is now also at times directed at civilians.
But it seems best at this stage to do two things. First, to hold it possible that the bombs could have been destined for use in more 'conventional' warfare by the resistance in the mountains, rather than for terrorism against civilians. Second, to place the possible emergence of terrorism in the context of a stalemated diplomatic situation, for which Indonesia bears a good share of responsibility.
[Gerry van Klinken, editor, 'Inside Indonesia' magazine.]