AP News, February 21st, 2007
Florindo de Jesus Brites described watching in horror as pro-Indonesian militias surrounded a houseful of refugees and opened fire, killing 12 _ one of the first public testimonies about East Timor's bloody break for independence in 1999.
"Some of us escaped to the back of the house and climbed a tree, but they found us and kept shooting," he testified on Tuesday before the Commission on Truth and Friendship, which has the power to call witnesses but not to prosecute. "They got my friend. He dropped dead to the ground."
East Timor voted overwhelmingly to end nearly a quarter century of Indonesian rule in a public referendum seven 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 up to 1,500 dead, and political leaders appear reluctant to press for trials that could upset diplomatic relations.
Critics say the truth commission, which began holding hearings Monday on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, is a "whitewash" and will do little or nothing to heal the wounds of victims. Perpetrators who take the stand are promised amnesty.
"This is not about justice," said Jose Luis de Oliveira, director of the East Timor rights group Yayasan HAK. "This is theater, political drama ... who's to say, even, that those who carried out the attacks will tell the truth?"
Five Indonesian and five East Timorese _ including a former judge, a human rights activist, a retired army general and a diplomat _ will hear from dozens of victims and officials for the next six months.
Manuel Ximenes told the commission Tuesday he was the Atudara village chief when troops ordered hundreds of people to attend a funeral of a pro-Indonesian militia leader on April 12, 1999.
"I saw members of the militia shoot villagers at a nearby military post," he said, adding that he also heard them tell one young man to run, only to shoot him when he was 25 yards away.
"A year later, I returned with some others to the site," Ximenes said. "All that was left of the victims was hair, teeth, parts of skull. We took what we could find and buried it."
Indonesia _ the world's fourth most populous nation with 220 million people _ has resisted pressure for a full-blown international tribunal like those held for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
But East Timor, a tiny country of less than a million and one of the world's poorest, has said it does not want to seek justice, saying it prefers to be friends with its giant neighbor.
And with fresh violence in East Timor _ this time between rival gangs _ undermining stability ahead of presidential elections in April, some victims said they do not have the time or energy to think about past crimes.
"I just want to forget ... to open a new page," said Palmira dos Santos, a 45-year-old widower whose husband was killed in 1999. She said she has more immediate concerns, like educating her seven children.
She hopes the two governments will find a way to help her.
"Right now, the relationship between Indonesia and East Timor is more important than justice," dos Santos said in East Timor's capital, Dili.
