Joanna Jolly, Kupang and Vaudine England, Jakarta – Militia leaders fear betrayal in the ranks and suspect the Indonesian military will use other senior militiamen against them.
Leaders Nemecio Lopez de Carvalho and his brother, Cancio, say that the military has already provided money and tickets for two pro-integration leaders to travel to Jakarta to discredit a letter asking for international assistance, which was sent to the UN Security Council earlier this week. In particular, they name chief militia leader Joao Tavares, who they say wanted to be included on a list of militiamen seeking protection, but who has now distanced himself from the letter.
"We think certain people will be used by the TNI [Indonesian army] and Polri [Indonesian police] against us in order to capture us," said Nemecio Lopez de Carvalho. The militia leaders believe that funding is being provided by regional military commander Major-General Kiki Syahnakri for a campaign to prevent them returning to East Timor with 90,000 refugees who they say will follow them.
Analysts and diplomats believe the militias' letter appears to signal a split within militia ranks and may even play into the hands of Indonesian generals accused of rights abuses. But the letter is being taken as genuine and is under serious consideration by the highest levels of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor. If militiamen willing to spill secrets make it to the border with East Timor, a warm welcome could be possible.
In the letter, dated October 14, the militiamen promise to expose those who ordered the violence that laid waste to East Timor after last year's independence ballot. In return, the gang leaders asked for international legal and safety guarantees, for fear, they said, of assassination by Indonesian officers who wanted them silenced.
A key claim in the letter – that former president Bacharuddin Habibie visited East Timor on August 20 last year to order the destruction – is disputed. "To say the [then] Indonesian president could have visited East Timor without our knowledge is ludicrous," a UN source said.
In Jakarta, Indonesian police said yesterday that they were considering shifting notorious East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres from police detention to house arrest next week. If found guilty of inciting people to carry out crimes against the Government, Guterres faces a maximum of six years in prison.
East Timor independence leader Jose Ramos Horta, sworn in as the territory's first Foreign Minister on Thursday, said his top priority in office would be to mend frayed relations with former ruler Indonesia.