Without doubt it is the women of East Timor who have suffered the most. While they have undergone what can only be described as martyrdom, the international community has chosen to turn a blind eye to their pleas for help.

The suffering of East Timorese women falls into many categories including the killing of pregnant women, rape, comfort women, forced motherhood, child stealing and public executions.

Becoming mistresses or "local wives" of Indonesian soldiers offers some protection from certain East Timorese women from continous raping by other soldiers. The soldiers keep the young women with them while they stay in East Timor, and when they go they abandon or pass the women on to the soldiers who replace them.

Recently, 23-year-old Alianca dos Santos was arrested by members of the Indonesian armed forces. She was beated, threatened with death and raped on three occasions. She was forced to work for the soldiers until Bishop Carlos Belo forced the military to release her.

From the outset the Indonesian military has singled out women for particularly harsh treatment. The killing of wives, sisters and other female relatives of East Timorese independence fighters began on day one of the invasion.

On that day, Isabela Lobato, the wife of the East Timorese President Nicolau, was taken from the place where she was hiding with three of her sisters. Without hesitation she was raped by her executioners and then shot dead. Also on that day, 159 other women wwere executed after their childern had been taken from them. The childern were taken by the Indonesian military to the capital Jakarta.

In a small village outside the East Timorese capital of Dili, Jose and Fatima Gusmao witnesses told how a pregnant women was treated at the hands of the Indonesian invaders.

After a group of 20 soldiers had attacked the village and left in a big helicopter, the Gusmao couple saw the woman slowly coming out of her house. When they returned to get a better look this is what they saw:

"When we get closer we see it is the the pregnant woman outside. She is naked. She holds herself, all the stomach is cut open, the baby and everything coming out, the blood has started to dry black. She is just alive and I think she knows us. She tries to speak but no sound comes out. Tears run from all over her face. "We can do nothing for her. We cannot fix a wound like that. We try to take the baby out but she is dead, cut completely in pieces by sharp knives. It is so horrible we can hardly believe, the small childern are broken, torn apart by their legs, like you tear paper."

Only recently has the suffering of the women of East Timor been focused on. No international agency with the exception of Amnesty Internatinal, has documented the appalling atrocities inflicted on them by the Indonesian military.