Chris McCall, Dili – They used to supply bombs to Falintil resistance fighters. Now East Timor's Marxists are preparing for battle at the ballot box. In a building once occupied by the feared Aitarak militia, the Timor Socialist Party, or PST, is mapping out its new campaign.
The target: win seven to 10 of the 88 seats up for grabs later this year in East Timor's Constituent Assembly, the constitution-drafting body due to be elected on August 30.
Anti-independence graffiti has not yet been scraped off the walls. At the height of the violence after the 1999 referendum, Aitarak men were interrogating refugees outside as they tried to flee to the hills. Several people were killed nearby. Many buildings are still in ruins just along the street. The electricity supply is erratic at best, but the Indonesians have gone. Using computers paid for through a speech tour of Australia, this formerly clandestinegroup is mapping out its strategy for the future, hoping one day the new EastTimor will be a "socialist" state.
The PST's political creed is "Marxism-Leninism". But it is pragmatic about the near future. "Ideally, we want East Timor to be socialist," says Nelson Correia, 29, the party's deputy secretary-general and spokesman. "It is too soon for communism. Our understanding is that communism is a concept that is premature. It is something that is ideal."
Unusually for Marxists, most of PST's members are practising Catholics. Mr Correia, himself a Catholic, sees little contradiction between subscribingto an atheist political creed and believing in God and an afterlife.
These ageing ex-students say they will have no trouble gaining the 500 signatures needed to register their party for the election, due to be held exactly two years after the independence referendum. They are also trying to raise awareness in the interior about the vote.
After the wholesale destruction of 1999, many families have been left without access to radio, which was the main news source. PST is also setting up co-operatives, for example on coffee, a major Timorese crop. The party wants them to become a focal point of the Timorese economy.
It is in tune with Timorese culture, Mr Correia says. A Timorese man will often work his own rice fields one day and a neighbour's the next. A PST "Government" would not ban foreign investment, but there would be preconditions. Most importantly, the workers would have to get a share of the profits.
Not long ago, these politicians would rarely dare to mention their party's name. They were associated with the "Black Brigade", a clandestine movement with a "cell" structure that ran bombs to Falintil. Members of each cell only knew four to five others, a precaution against Indonesian attempts to wipe it out.
PST was founded in 1991, shortly after the infamous massacre at Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery. Indonesian troops shot dead scores of unarmed protesters. Dili's last Portuguese-language high school was also razed to the ground.
It had been the meeting point for the town's young Marxists. PST's foundation was a closely guarded secret. Indonesian law still bans the teaching of "communist" ideologies such as Marxism. The party's leaders moved to Java and set up secret bomb-making factories to keep the Falintil guerillas armed in their war against occupation.
But its Marxist philosophy has sometimes made it hard for the PST to coexist with the other elements of the Timorese resistance. It was only an observer when the National Council for Timorese Resistance was founded. Now, many Timorese fear political divisions between left and right could lead to civil strife once the United Nations administration pulls out, possibly next year.