AP News, March 26th, 2007
Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, whose resistance to Indonesian rule in East Timor won him a Nobel prize, described Monday how Jakarta-backed militias burned down churches and killed priests after his tiny nation's independence vote.
He told the Commission on Truth and Friendship, established by both countries to hear testimony about the 1999 violence, that while he preferred to look to the future it was important not to forget the past.
"It's important to acknowledge that, as human beings and as citizens, we failed to maintain human rights, tolerance and solidarity," Belo told the panel, which has been widely criticized by rights groups as a tool to whitewash Indonesia's role in the bloodshed.
"It doesn't mean that we want to open old wounds and stir up hatred," he said.
East Timor voted overwhelmingly to end nearly a quarter century of Indonesian rule in a public referendum eight years ago that triggered a burst of killing, looting and burning by Indonesian soldiers and their military proxies.
Only one person has been punished for the violence that left more than 1,000 dead, and political leaders in both nations appear reluctant to press for more trials. The United Nations has said it would consider setting up an international tribunal if justice was not done.
Belo spoke calmly and with little emotion and he described how Indonesian troops and their militia proxies killed priests, attacked churches and destroyed religious documents. On Sept. 6, 1999, they threw petrol bombs at his own home, where refugees were seeking shelter, he said.
"There was gunfire coming from all directions and then shouting," Belo told the panel, made up of five Indonesians and five East Timorese. "I saw the glass from the windows shatter and fall to the floor. I saw fire in the guest room ... the door burning."
He said he and others in the house escaped through the north entrance.
"I saw by the front gate plain-clothed Indonesian troops," said Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta. "When they saw me they just looked down."
