Dili – Joni Marques, former leader of East Timor's notorious Team Alfa militia, was released on parole earlier this month after controversially having a 33-year prison term commuted. He gave a long interview to Lusa Monday in a Dili refugee camp where he now lives with his family.
Joni told Lusa he regretted his involvement in the ambush on a Catholic Church convoy in September, 1999 in which a number of nuns and priests and Timorese civilians were killed.
He said himself and his men were given drugs by Indonesian Army officers before the attack and that he remembered nothing of the massacre until days after, when he recalled what he'd done and felt remorse.
Joni said he hadn't originally supported the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia in 1975 and also said what he did in support of the occupying forces was done purely "from fear".
The ex-militia boss said he hadn't fled to Indonesia during Timor's slide into bloody turmoil after the 1999 independence vote, in contrast to many people, and had remained in Com on the northern coast of the Lautem district.
Joni's relationship with the occupying Indonesian military began in 1981, after he abandoned the Timorese resistance movement, Fretilin, along with countless other guerillas, over the previous two years.
"The Indonesians wanted to kill me as I had family in the bush. They accused me of being Fretilin and I had no choice to become an assistant in the operations", involving logistical support to Indonesian forces in Timor.
This "heavy" work was also perilous for Joni, as he was "between two enemies and could be killed by both sides."
In 1986, Joni returned to Lospalos, where violence unleashed by Jakarta's occupying forces "awoke the will to defend the people."
"For this I needed I gun," Joni told Lusa, justifying this as a reason for joining Team Alfa, a militia sometimes known as Jati Merah Puti, meaning "Real White and Red" in Indonesia Bahasa, an allusion to the colors of Indonesia's national flag.
His role in the pro-Jakarta militia from 1991 to 1994 was to command around 80 men. But he was stripped of command after being accused of supplying Timorese independence fighters with ammunition, although he continued to serve in Team Alfa.
As ritual punishment for the alleged treason he was hit with a rifle butt in the mouth. The blow's result is a small scar that still gives Joni the curious appearance of having a permanent smile.
From the myriad clashes in his days as a militiaman, Jodi recalls an encounter with a Falantil resistance band led by Vicente da Conceicco, nicknamed "Railos", accused of distributing arms to civilians during Timor's eruption of violence in 2006.
Joni said when he met Railos in Dili's Becora jail in October, 2007, he hugged him and told him they were both mere captives while the 'great and good' were still at large.
During his six years in jail Joni became a cook because "I like to mix spices and seasoning."
On his prospects as a free man, albeit on parole, Jodi said he has no fixed plans. His main wish is, however, that those in power understand why he did what he did and don't hold it against him. (CJB/PRM)