From: Indonesia Publications/Task Force <apakabar@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.portuguese
Date: 14 Aug 92 18:51 PDT
Subject: East Timor Newsbriefs Aug 14
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1591800223:000:5589
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!apakabar    Aug 14 18:51:00 1992


From: Indonesia Publications/Task Force <apakabar>
Subject: East Timor Newsbriefs Aug 14



Remark: Abridged news story. Materials in brackets [-] inserted by 
poster. In some sets of Indonesian subversion trials following incidents
of regime violence, there has been a cooperating or absent witness 
who could reasonably be suspected of having acted on behalf of
the Indonesian Army, in particular its intelligence apparatus.
Constancio Pinto has often been named in the Indonesian press
as someone who led the Executive Committee which planned the
November 12 demonstration but whom the Army curiously did not
produce during the recent spate of Dili trials.  Sometimes in 
the past, the Army has sacrificed its 'plant' or 'agent provocateur'
and placed him on trial, but this has yet to occur for Constancio 
Pinto whom the Australian ICJ report considers to have been an Army agent.
It is not clear whether Constancio Pinto is even dead or alive.
A host of other Army officers who would have known about any 
intelligence operatives involved in the October 28 and November 12
incidents also were never produced at the Dili trials.  These
factors lend some credibility to the 'spy' allegation in the
following story.  We await the full draft report to see what
evidence and argumentation the Australian ICJ has produced,
including any and all involvement by Army officers and personnel
quickly withdrawn from East Timor under various pretexts soon
after November 12, and by any persons involved in Lt. Col. Prabowo's
earlier clandestine activities in East Timor.
  -- John (apakabar@igc.org)


    Reuter, Sydney, Wilson da Silva, Aug 14 - A spy for Indonesia 
orchestrated the protest last November which sparked an army massacre 
in East Timor, according to an Australian report to the International 
Commission of Jurists released here on Friday.
    The report, prepared by the Australian section of the commission,
says Constancio Pinto was the key Fretilin rebel official who
masterminded the protest while working as an agent for an Indonesian
intelligence service.
    It also says there appears to be credible evidence that Indonesia's
military intelligence had "been aware of and may have actually
encouraged and perhaps even directed the demonstrations through their
agent Pinto."
    Six Timorese civilians were recently jailed for between six years
and life for organising the Dili protest. Ten Indonesian soldiers and
police were sentenced to up to 18 months for misconduct over the
killings.
    Commission lawyer Rodney Lewis, who also represented the LawAsia
Human Rights Committee, the International Bar Association and the Law
Council of Australia, attended some of the Dili trials and spent four
months sifting through the hundreds of documents introduced at them.
    The International Commission of Jurists is a global association of
lawyers concerned with human rights which has consultative status with
the United Nations.
    The report says evidence at the trials showed Pinto headed
Fretilin's organising committee for the protest and decided on its date
and its make-up, yet was never charged or questioned and has since
disappeared.
    Other trial evidence suggests that Pinto was not the only Indonesian
agent at the Dili cemetery, the report says.
    Gregorio da Cunha Saldanha, sentenced to life for subversion,
testified at his trial that a Lieutenant Edy of Dili's local
intelligence unit showed him a photograph of a Timorese man atop the
cemetery wall waving a banner during the protest, the report says.
    Saldanha claimed Edy boasted that the man had been an intelligence
agent named Ajenuno but the court did not question this further.
    Saldanha also said the senior intelligence officer [in East Timor] 
Colonel Purwanto [apparently since dismissed from the Indonesian Army] 
told him that Pinto was one of his agents.
    The military "were not only aware of the demonstration...but may
have planned both the demonstrations...and been responsible for the
provocation...which has been set forth as justification for the use of
firearms at the Santa Cruz cemetery," the report says.



    Reuter, Jakarta, Aug 13 - The Indonesian armed forces on Thursday
denied reports from Australia of major clashes with independence-seeking
rebels in East Timor.
    "We have always been chasing them but without contact," military
spokesman Nurhadi Purwosaputro told Reuters.
    Sources in the Fretilin rebel group said in Australia on Tuesday
that guerrillas had been locked in battle with Indonesian troops for two
weeks, fending off a military offensive to capture rebel chief Xanana
Gusmao.
    The sources said the battles were centred on the eastern Viqueque
and Baucau regions of the island.
    Fretilin organiser Alfredo Ferreira said from Darwin in northern
Australia that seven guerrillas and 20 Indonesian soldiers had been
killed in a major battle in the same region a week earlier.
    Brigadier-General Nurhadi said on Thursday his troops were used to
put out a major fire in the Baucau region, but that that had nothing to
with the rebels fighting to end Jakarta's rule over East Timor. He did
not say when the fire started.
    Western diplomats said the military had become more active in East
Timor after an international uproar over troops firing into a crowd of
mourners at a cemetery in the capital, Dili, last November.
    "Perhaps this is what the offensives are but we have no information
about any battles," one diplomat said.
    Both diplomats and the military estimate the strength of the rebels
at between 150 and 200.