From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Timor Update
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 08:11:13 GMT

/** reg.easttimor: 356.0 **/
** Topic: Update on situation in East Timor **
** Written 11:30 pm  Jan  6, 1993 by gn:tapol in cdp:reg.easttimor **
Update: Situation in East Timor
 
TAPOL Report, 6 January 1993
From very reliable, protected sources.
 
1.   Some of the people who were arrested immediately before
and after the arrest of the resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao,
are being held in secret cells at Colmera prison and at
Komarka prison in Balide, Dili. Henrique Belmiro Guterres is
in the worst state of all; all his nails were pulled out, his
ears were slashed and he has a broken arm. The families of
those arrested have not been told by the International Red
Cross of their whereabouts, which is what normally happens.
 
2.   In late November, an East Timorese member of the Armed
Forces, Lieut. Constancio Guterres was arrested on suspicion
of being involved with a clandestine organisation. Other armed
forces members have also reportedly been arrested as well.
East Timorese troops are no longer being issued with firearms.
 
3.   David Dias Ximenes was arrested on 17 December, held and
interrogated for a day, then released after intervention by
the International Red Cross. [David Dias Ximenes was sentenced
to 15 years back in the early 1980s and spent his term of
imprisonment in Cipinang, Jakarta. He was released and
returned to Dili before November 1991.]
 
4.   Several East Timorese businessmen have gone into hiding
as they are suspected of having supplied Xanana Gusmao with
his needs in his hideout. The head of the Public Relations
Bureau [not clear at which level of the administration] has
been summoned for investigations. The head of Samsat [?],
Captain Martins has been transferred to Denpasar.
 
5.   At the beginning of December, Governor Abilio Soares and
military commander, Brig.Gen. Theo Syafei instructed all their
subordinates in the civil and military services to round up
all civil and military personnel who are suspected of being
'two-faced' for immediate interrogation; where proven guilty,
they must be placed under arrest. Many of these people are
anti-integration UDT sympathisers.
 
6.   Some members of underground organisations who
'surrendered' in Baucau and who were then ordered to go into
the bush to hunt down guerrillas have since been killed by
Indonesian soldiers because they failed to capture anyone.
They were given two alternatives to test the sincerity of
their surrender: they would stay alive if they captured rebels
or be killed if they captured no-one.
 
7.   Operations by the military have reached a new peak of
ferocity, forcing people to take oaths, all of which is
carefully recorded. Youths, especially young girls, are being
compelled to attend dance parties held by soldiers all over
the country. No-one dares to refuse or to protest as everyone
is very afraid.
 
8.   Things are far worse now than they were in 1975. We
fervently hope that you will disseminate this information
without mentioning the source. The situation in East Timor is
dire; we sorely need intervention from the UN.
** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **

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