Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – An East Timorese woman has told how she was repeatedly raped by a pro-Indonesia militia member in the months after the nation's historic 1999 referendum "because the pro-independence won".
Esmeralda dos Santos today testified before the East Timor-Indonesia Commission on Truth and Friendship that the man kicked and beat her for a month, trying to abort the child she had conceived during the rapes.
Also today, human rights campaigner Galuh Wandita told the forum that Indonesian security forces and militia members had committed hundreds of rapes in 1999.
The commission is holding public hearings in Jakarta this week as it works to establish a conclusive truth about the violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 vote for independence. It's hoped the forum will aid reconciliation between the two nations.
"My hopes for the future are that I don't want this to happen to my children," she told the hearing. "What I experienced, it should stop here. I don't want this to happen to my children. I don't want this to happen again."
Up to 1,500 Timorese died, tens of thousands were displaced, and buildings and homes smashed and burnt across the country when militia linked to the Indonesian army went on a killing and arson spree.
Dos Santos was a teenager living in Suai when she fled to the local church compound in the days after the 1999 vote because "every night we were being terrorised by the militias and the TNI". TNI is the name of the Indonesian Armed Forces.
She said she saw about 500 others seeking refuge when the church compound came under attack by militias on September 6 – a week after the independence vote. "There were many people who died as a result of the shots," dos Santos said.
She said the Indonesian army took her to the local high school, with three other young women, where a militia member raped her "almost every day and night for a week". "At the time they said that they committed the rape because the pro-independence won," she said.
Eight days later, dos Santos, who had never left her village before, said she was taken to a town in West Timor, where she was held captive by the same militia man who continued to rape her.
"When I was raped I was already pregnant... he wanted to abort the pregnancy. For one month I had been beaten and kicked because he wanted to abort my baby, and I ran away. I ran away in November back to East Timor."
Wandita told the commission traumatised women were forcibly taken from the Suai church to a number of locations and raped by Laksaur, Mahidi militia and members of the Indonesian security forces.
"Indonesian security forces were not only negligent and failed to guard their safety, they also took part in the commission of these crimes," the human rights campaigner said.
She said most human rights organisations in East Timor and Indonesia had refused to cooperate with the commission because they feared it would recommend amnesties for perpetrators of serious crimes.
"This means that there is a great risk that the CTF (the commission) can become a vehicle for impunity," Wandita said.
"I hope this commission will recognise how important acknowledging the truth is for our nation's journey towards democratisation.
"In Indonesia the truth is usually avoided and compromised for political interests. Most of the women survivors whom I have met... are simple peasants with no particular political beliefs or agenda. They became victims when violence was allowed to dominate. There is no justice for them, their lives are still very difficult."