Jakarta – In a meeting marked by blood and tears, detained East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres wept Monday as he accused the Indonesian government of failing to appreciate his efforts to keep East Timor within Indonesia, police said.
An unshaven and bleary-eyed Guterres was brought out of his police cell to meet 30 of his supporters who had travelled from West Timor to demand his release, local television showed.
The usually confident leader of the feared "Thorn" militia wept with his men, who in turn pricked their fingers and sprinkled drops of blood over a white cloth which they handed to Eurico as a pledge of loyalty, national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Saleh Saaf said.
"Eurico cried because one of his supporters presented him with a red and white [national Indonesian] flag as a sign of solidarity," Saaf, who was present at the meeting, told AFP. "He was very moved and wept and said he didn't want them to give him a flag because he has fought so long to defend the red and white flag, to keep it flying in East Timor," Saaf said.
The Satunet online news service quoted Guterres as saying he was not crying because he was under arrest. "I'm crying because right up to this moment, the government has not acknowledged our struggle. The Indonesian nation is large but it would seem its courage is small," Guterres said.
Guterres was arrested Wednesday on charges of ordering his men to take back weapons they had earlier surrendered during a handover ceremony in West Timor presided over by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri Monday. The charge is unconnected to his implication in last year's human rights crimes in East Timor.
After Monday's meeting with his supporters, Guterres was quizzed for a second time by state prosecutors from the Attorney General's office who are probing the East Timor atrocities, Attorney General spokesman Yushar Yahya told AFP. Police spokesman Saaf said Guterres, before leaving his supporters, entreated them "to be calm, not to make enemies with the police, not to riot, and not to fight."