Saturday, June 10, 2006
"These are people (the rebels) who once took their orders from Jakarta. ...
Major Calisto Santos Coliati of F-FDTL is from Bobonaro, what some would call a "loromonu". He served with FALINTIL for 18 years in the mountains. He gives a different version of the story to what the petitioners and Alfredo Salsinha are saying. The media needs to give both sides of the story. We need to hear more from people like Major Coliati, who stands to discredit the allegations of discriminations put forward by the likes of Alfredo and Salsinha. I maintain that Alfredo and Salsinha are only using the allegations of discrimination within F-FDTL to cover up their own real intentions.
The real discrimination is this: people like Alfredo Reinado spent their lives serving Indonesian army and then a quiet life in Australia. On return to Timor-Leste and joining the F-FDTL, they are given the rank of MAJOR similar to someone who spent 18 YEARS fighting the TNI and dodging their bullets. This is what I call discrimination. Read on...
Lost vision in East Timor
(The Standard)
Hailed a UN poster child for nation building in 2002, the fledgling country now hemorrhages from ethnic gang warfare, Marianne Kearney reports
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Hailed a UN poster child for nation building in 2002, the fledgling country now hemorrhages from ethnic gang warfare, Marianne Kearney reports
Major Colista [Calisto] Santos Coliati, a veteran of East Timor's guerilla war against Indonesia, was once hailed as a hero by his people. Just weeks before East Timor's independence vote in 1999, when the guerilla army Falantil [Falintil] celebrated its birthday in the mountains near Bobonaro, hundreds of Dili residents traveled to the hill town.
For the dozens of students and youths who piled on to trucks heading for the mountains, it was a dangerous but historic adventure; the convoy of pro-independence supporters could have come under attack by militias at any time. It was a risk they willingly made to meet face to face with the legendry force which had kept their spirits alive during the 24 years of Indonesian occupation.
But it was a strange meeting between heroes and the youths of the clandestine movement, many whom had supported the guerilla movement by providing food, money and medicines to keep their struggle alive.
Coliati and his comrades took over the whole village, setting up tight security to prevent any militia or Indonesian military incursions. As the celebrations ran into the early hours of the morning with thousands of people dancing and singing, Falantil guerillas ran the party like a military operation, even controlling who danced with who and for how long. It was obvious then that after years of living on the run in the jungle, adapting to civilian life would not be easy.
Coliati's vision of life in a newly independent East Timor was simple. "Our only desire is for East Timorese to live without a feeling of fear, to be free of Indonesia and terror," he said.
Today he admits those dreams have turned sour. In an eerie reminder of the instability created by pro-Indonesian militias prior to the independence ballot, 100,000 Dili residents have fled their homes to seek refugee in church compounds, public parks, the airport and even the military base.
This time, instead of fleeing militias, they are fleeing ethnic conflict which pits those from the west of the country, or loro-monu, against the easterners or loro-sae.
"I'm very disappointed to see this. When we were in the Bobonaro, we didn't have this issue," says Coliati, reflecting on his 18 years in the mountains of western Timor. The gang warfare was sparked by pitched battles between East Timor Defence Force (FDTL) loyalists, who are mostly easterners, and a group of rebels troops who are mostly from the west, last month.
Violence between the two ethnic groups, and within the security forces, began in April when 600 rebel troops deserted, complaining of bias at the hands of the loro-sae who they said hold most of the FDTL's top posts.
"A lot say FDTL are only loro-sae, but it's a lie ... there is no difference between the two," says Coliati who, as a westerner and the military's number three commander, says he is proof their claims of bias are just political ploy.
He accuses the rebels, blamed for leading East Timor to the brink of civil war, as being former Indonesian- backed militia. "These are people who once took their orders from Jakarta. They don't like FDTL because we struggled for independence and now we struggle for democracy," Coliati says.
But outside military headquarters, instead of being hailed as the country's saviors, Coliati and his fellow troops are called murderers and accused of supplying weapons to the loro-sae gangs ravaging the city.
Just 200 meters from the military base, New Zealand troops, part of more than 2,000 foreign soldiers brought in to restore peace, make a comprehensive weapons search of every person and vehicle that moves from the base to the center of Dili.
Coliati argues the foreign troops are stationed close to the base to prevent rebel army commander Alfredo Reinado from trying to attack the capital. That might be partly true, but with credible reports of gang members being armed with military-issue semi- automatics, the New Zealand troops aren't taking any chances.
And on the streets, the public view of the military, and even Falantil, has never been so low.
"Before everyone hated the police and thought the FDTL was good, but now everyone hates the FDTL, they are killers," says Xavier de Maria, a university lecturer.
The hatred stems from a series of brutal incidents. In the most outrageous, military officers opened fire on East Timor National Police (PNTL) who were surrendering their weapons during a United Nations negotiated peace deal, killing 10 and injuring of 27 others. Coliati says the soldiers were seeking revenge for the killing of one of their comrades by police at Caicoli military headquarters in central Dili.
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(for the complete article, please click here)
