Vaudine England, Jakarta – Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres was arrested yesterday, two days after being named as a suspect in the violence that followed last year's independence vote in East Timor.
His arrest in Jakarta on weapons charges, announced by new police chief General Bimantoro, came less than an hour after President Abdurrahman Wahid returned from a 10-day overseas trip.
At first glance, the arrest appeared to assuage fears that the Government was unable or unwilling to move against the Jakarta-backed militias that rampaged through East Timor last September and still hold about 130,000 refugees hostage in West Timor.
But diplomats fear the arrest was mere theatre, like other events surrounding West Timor, where disarming and disbanding the militias are prerequisites for the return of United Nations staff and aid groups.
Some observers blame Guterres and his men for the mob attack in which four United Nations aid workers were beaten and burned to death on September 6 in Atambua, West Timor. Those killings sparked international outrage that threatens to limit or delay Indonesia's next batch of overseas aid, which the country is relying on for budget support.
"This arrest is a month late. Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman promised this to the United Nations a month ago," one Western diplomat said. "And we must not be distracted by this arrest from what is happening on the ground in West Timor. Estimates are that less then 10 per cent of the modern weaponry which was seen crossing the border last year has been given up so far."
Other sources said there was method to the seemingly sudden arrest of Guterres. It was the murder of Olivio Moruk – also officially linked to militia violence – that sparked the mob attack and police may have wanted Guterres kept alive until he was in Jakarta.
"There's a possibility that Guterres is willing to shop a lot of people," a source said, suggesting police might try to use the militia leader as a state witness. Such a possibility cannot be discounted considering Guterres has already changed sides once. As a young man he was a courier for the East Timorese pro-independence Falintil. "Eurico Guterres was one of the key thugs behind the violence in East Timor and we've been waiting more than a year to see him behind bars," said Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao reacted with scepticism and caution to Guterres' arrest, saying he believed in the "good intentions" of Indonesian authorities but that these were merely "attempts to please the international community" if the militia remains active.