Berita tentang Demonstrasi para mahasiswa Timor-Timur dan kasus BOM demak
Dalam aksi itu para mahasiswa yang datang dari berbagai kota di Jateng (Yogya, Solo, Salatiga dan Semarang sendiri) menyampaikan beberapa tuntutan diantaranya, segera bebaskan keempat teman mereka karena pengadilan Indonesia tidak memiliki wewenang yuridis untuk mengadili dan menghukum mereka, meminta pengadilan memulihkan nama baik keempat tersangka. Juga menuntut untuk menghapus semua tuduhan dengan label "teroris" yang dikenakan kepada mereka.
IMPETTU SE-JATENG: "BEBASKAN MEREKA DARI TUDUHAN TERORIS!"
SEMARANG (MateBEAN, 15/4/98),
Ratusan mahasiswa Timor Timur yang tergabung dalam IMPETTU se-Jawa Tengah menggelar aksi unjuk rasa di depan Gedung Pengadilan Negeri Semarang Senin (13/4) siang. Mereka menuntut pembebasan keempat rekan mereka yang kini sedang menjalani proses persidangan selaku terdakwa dalam kasus ledakan bom di Demak pertengahan 1997 lalu.
Aksi yang dimulai sekitar pukul 10.00 wib tersebut bertepatan dengan akan dihadirkannya saksi utama Constancio da Costa dos Santos alias Aquita dari LP Becora Dili, sebagaimana dituntut oleh majelis hakim pada persidangan minggu lalu. Ternyata penuntut umum tidak mampu menghadirkan Aquita sebagaimana janjinya kepada persidangan.
Dalam aksi itu para mahasiswa yang datang dari berbagai kota di Jateng (Yogya, Solo, Salatiga dan Semarang sendiri) menyampaikan beberapa tuntutan diantaranya, segera bebaskan keempat teman mereka karena pengadilan Indonesia tidak memiliki wewenang yuridis untuk mengadili dan menghukum mereka, meminta pengadilan memulihkan nama baik keempat tersangka. Juga menuntut untuk menghapus semua tuduhan dengan label "teroris" yang dikenakan kepada mereka.
Hampir terjadi bentrokan dalam aksi yang dihadiri oleh semua Ketua IMPETTU se Jawa Tengah itu, ketika pihak kepolisian hendak membubarkan para mahasiswa. Namun, dengan sabar para mahasiswa meminta pengertian aparat untuk membiarkan mereka membaca pernyataan mereka. Akhirnya mereka bisa membacakan pernyataan mereka, dan aksi mereka berakhir sekitar pukul 12.00 wib. Sementara itu, sumber MateBEAN dari Dili menyatakan bahwa tidak hadir- nya Constancio untuk memberi kesaksian adalah karena ketidakmampuan Kejaksaaan Semarang untuk menanggung biaya perjalanan pulang-pergi Dili-Semarang. Hal ini disebabkan terjadinya krisis moneter. Aquita sendiri telah menyatakan kesedia- annya untuk bersaksi bagi keempat temannya itu.***
MARIANO:
"THEY ARE NOT TERRORISTS, IT IS A NEW STIGMA!"
Jakarta, (MateBEAN, 28/10/97).
"East Timorese independence struggle has its new metamorphosis in 1997. First, in the 1975th , the Soeharto Regime accused the struggle as a communist movement, obviously an effort to attract sympathy and support from western countries. In the 1980th the regime called it a GPK (Gerakan Pengacau Keamanan, Security Disturber Movement), and now has the honor to receive a new label as Terrorist Movement." The statement was said by Mariano Lopez in a press conference in Jakarta on the 20th of October regarding the All Inclusive Inter-East Timorese Dialogue (AIETD) held later in Austria.
"The Indonesian military will never feel tired to seek new stigmas to justify their intimidation to the Timor-Leste independence struggle," said Mariano speaking as the head of Malang branch IMPETTU, the Association of East Timorese Students. During the 1975 military campaign, by using the benefit of Cold War, the Indonesian military was always feeding western countries, especially the United States, that the aggression to Timor-Leste was actually a war against commu- nism. And to make an antipathy among Indonesian people towards the Maubere people's independence struggle, a stigma called GPK (Security Disturber Movement) was also labeled to FALINTIL (Forcas Armadas de Libertacao Nacional de Timor Leste) guerillas.
And now, after the western countries' interests seem to head away from Indonesian claim on East Timor, and in parallel with the US-influenced spirit of anti-terrorism, the Indonesian military throws a bait, hoping they will give them sympathy and support. And the bait is a new stigma called Terrorism, an enemy of the world and humanity. Mariano boldly stated that the Maubere Movement is not a terrorism. "What have been done by our comrades in arms in Semarang is a natural way of struggle and must be seen in a broader context, i.e., the recognition of every nation's rights to retaliate against the oppression of a stronger nation. Such an act must not be considered as terrorism. They are not terrorists, it is merely a new stigma," said the University of Brawijaya's faculty of agricultural engineering graduate.
"When an oppressed small nation try to retaliate against superior military oppression by making 20 home-brew molotov coctails, and they were called terrorists, what we call then, for a big nation buying sophisticated military arms to be used for a genocide, killing people's rights, annihilate the existence of a small nation?"
Marcos, another IMPETTU leader from Yogyakarta agreed Mariano's state- ment. He refused the accusation. "If they were terrorists, maybe they will throw bombs to any kinds of targets to make a chaos when the Indonesian people held the election a few months ago." Marcos said that the bombs were made to support guerilla freedom fighters in the forests, not to demolish Dili, as has been said by the military and blown up by many Indonesian media.
"It doesn't make sense if the FALINTIL guerillas want to kill their own brothers and sisters, their own flesh and blood who has supported them for almost twenty two years," Marcos said.
Meanwhile Demetrio from IMPETTU Yogyakarta reminded the journalists at present, such patriotic deed has been done by Indonesian freedom fighters when they defended their precious independence from Dutch colonialist aggres- sion.. "Ironically, the same "terrorists" stigma had been used by the Dutch colonialists to label the freedom fighters," said Demetrio.
Asked whether Xanana Gusmao as the East Timorese Resistance Commander had issued an order to attack and demolish Dili, all three of them, Mariano, Marcos and Demetrio argued strongly.
"Xanana has given all his precious belongings for the sake of East Timorese people's rights for almost 22 years. He even do not know the where- abouts of his wife and children. It is impossible for him to give such an instruction. We believe that all these accusation was engineered by the military to discredit Xanana's gaining popularity in the world's political arena, especially after he met the President of South Africa," stated Maria- no, who has met recently with UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for East Timor issue, Mr. Jamsheed Marker. "We are afraid such maneuver will discredit also FALINTIL guerillas. As you maybe have heard before, some human rights groups has condemned the guerillas to be responsible for the murder of civil- ians. It is still obscure whether the killing was done by the guerillas or not."
Recently, East Timor military authority has arrested some members of the AST (Associacao Socialista Timor) accused of making and smuggling Molotov Coctails and ammunition to East Timor. The uncovering of this case began on September 13, 1997 in a small town of Demak, Central Java when a bomb ignited unintentionally and blown down a house rented by East Timorese youths. Local authorities arrested four people, Ivo Salvador Miranda (20), Domingos Natali- no Coelho da Silva (18), Joaquim Santana (23) and Fernao Pedro Correia (19). The authority also arrested two people aboard the ship KM Tatamailau bound for Dili. Inside the bags of these two young people, Constancio da Costa Santos (21) and Paulo Jorge R. Pereira (23), the military found 20 molotov coctails, 44 rounds of M-16 bullets, 21 rounds of Colt .38 Special bullets, one FN .45 bullet and some communication equipment.
Meanwhile in Austrian Embassy, Jakarta, the fate of East Timorese seek- ing political asylum is still in jeopardy. Indonesian military officers is now intensively lobbying embassy authorities and try to convince them that at least two of the asylum seekers are terrorists and the actor behind the making of the bombs. The two are Avelino Maria Coelho da Silva (35) alias Dr. Shalar Kossi (he is known as the Secretary General of the AST) and Nuno Marcal (23). The other persons are Sabina (29), the wife of Avelino and her two children and a certain Custodio (22).
East Timorese arrested in Semarang were not permitted to meet their lawyers from LBH (the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation). The police authori- ties said that the lawyers must have a permission from the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency, a reason clearly against the law. Detainees in Dili is luckier, they are accompanied by lawyers from HAK (Legal Aid and Human Rights Institute) lead by lawyer Aniceto, S.H.###
From:Suara INDEPENDEN
SiaR@mole.gn.apc.org 1 Nov 1997
East Timorese bombs - time to break the stalemate 1 November, 1997
For the first time, clandestine East Timorese fighters are building bombs. When one went off accidentally recently it introduced a new element into the East Timor problem and underscores the urgency of a resolution. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry says the explosives were intended to kill civilians in Dili indiscriminately. That is unproven, but the resort to bombs shows frustration is rising among young East Timorese over the diplomatic stalemate. The incident is awkward for all sides. If the clandestine group the Indonesian military hold responsible for the explosion has any strong international connection at all, it may be as much with the one overseas East Timorese Indonesia regards as an ally - Abilio Araujo - as with resistance spokesperson Ramos Horta.
Furthermore, the alleged leaders of this group are now in the Jakarta embassy of Austria, which just hosted a UN-sponsored intra- East Timorese dialogue that Indonesia supports. Foreign Minister Ali Alatas wants the 'terrorists' back and says refusal could imperil Indonesian-Austrian relations. But the Austrians reject the tag and want more time to consider their asylum application.
The Indonesian press has carried several detailed accounts of the incident, mostly quoting military sources. The clandestine group they mention is the Timorese Socialist Association (Associacao Socialista Timorense, AST). This group occasionally pops up in press and solidarity reports.
In early 1995 AST joined a coalition of East Timorese clandestine groups in Indonesia called CCONTLI that, besides AST, included Renetil, Group Onze Doze (1.2), and the anti-violence committee Anvisti.
According to the Portuguese newspaper Publico in April 1994, AST supported the December 1993 London 'reconciliation' meeting, in which Abilio Araujo played a prominent role, and which was in some ways a precursor to the UN-sponsored dialogue. Other resistance movements, and Xanana himself, condemned the meeting at the time. Insiders confirm that AST was 'his' organisation at least in 1994, though by no means all members supported his London initiative.
Top Indonesian military spokesman Brig-Gen Mokodongan was quick to link the explosion in Demak, Central Java, on 13 September 1997 to their favourite bete noir Ramos Horta. Horta replied - perhaps disingenuously - that he rejected the use of bombs for any purpose.
The Indonesian government does not appreciate the role Ramos Horta has played in keeping the movement away from terrorism. He has done this by publicly placing a lot of faith in a diplomatic process mediated by the UN General Secretary. Meanwhile, no report has mentioned Abilio Araujo, who now has substantial business links with Indonesians in East Timor. If Araujo indeed still supports the clandestine movement, it would indicate (not so much Araujo's duplicity but) the unanimity of East Timorese dreams of freedom. More importantly, neither Ramos Horta nor Abilio Araujo can hope to contain the use of increasingly violent methods whilst their diplomacy offers no progress. The parallel with burgeoning Hamas radicalism after Netanyahu effectively torpedoed the peace process is alarming.
According to Mokodongan, AST general-secretary Avelino Maria Coelho da Silva ('Dr Shalar Kossi') rented a house in Semarang, Central Java, in 1996 for the organisation's militant 'Brigada Negra' (Black Brigade). In May 1997 an Australian citizen, only named as Geoffrey, was sent by the Darwin East Timorese emigre community to the Semarang house and gave a month-long course in demolition for 'Section B' of the Brigade.
In July 1997 a group of three men from the Brigade moved into another house in Plamongan estate, Demak, 18 km east of Semarang, and began to construct a series of bombs using TNT. The military said that while simple, they were powerful enough to penetrate a centimetre of steel or even bring down a high-rise building. Twenty of the bombs, as well as small quantities of assorted ammunition, a video camera, tape recorder, small radio and handphone together with books, letters and some cash for the uerrillas, left for East Timor with several other men on 6 September.
However, when the bomb-makers in Demak stored their work under the refrigerator rather than in it, one went off, injuring the only occupant present in the house and blowing out the rear wall and roof of the kitchen. The military found 21 bombs, along with a jerrycan of chemicals and a computer disk containing names within the organisation. The unprecedented use of explosives brought the case to the attention of the highest level in the military.
They quickly arrested nine men in the organisation's Semarang house - their names appear in Amnesty International releases, though some confusion remains and they have not been allowed visits by lawyers or friends - as well as two men getting off the ship in Dili harbour bearing the other bombs and equipment, and one waiting for them.
Avelino, his wife, two children, and two other men meanwhile entered the Austrian embassy on 19 September and asked for asylum. Gaoled resistance leader Xanana appealed to Austria to protect them. Several others are still being sought. The military claim the bombs were intended to disrupt the installation of East Timor Governor Abilio Soares in Dili on 17 September. This led the Foreign Minister to insist that Avelino and Nuno Vicente Pereira Saldanha (both 35), still holed up in the embassy, are terrorists. Clearly the incident is part of an increasing level of militancy on the part of the East Timorese resistance. Human Rights Watch Asia has shown recently that this violence is now also at times directed at civilians. But it seems best at this stage to do two things. First, to hold it possible that the bombs could have been destined for use in more 'conventional' warfare by the resistance in the mountains, rather than for terrorism against civilians. Second, to place the possible emergence of terrorism in the context of a stalemated diplomatic situation, for which Indonesia bears a good share of responsibility.
Gerry van Klinken, editor, 'Inside Indonesia' magazine. ==============================================================
