Blood Brothers by Bertil Lintner

Author:Bertil Lintner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781741150179
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2010-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

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THE PIRATE REPUBLIC

[In] the old days . . . there used to be robbers, thieves, burglars, that sort of thing, pickpockets in the market, and so on. And for the most part they were just making a living, satisfying basic needs . . . But criminals nowadays, it’s certainly not just about livelihood. Instead, it’s to throw around lots of money, to show off, getting drunk, gambling. It’s clear that this kind of thing’s increased. What’s even more serious is that this criminal activity is very often tied, either directly or indirectly, to the aparat (officialdom), whether it’s the military or the police.

—A Javanese lawyer, 19961

When one of Suharto’s student followers approached the enormously influential Sultan Hamengkubuwono of Yogyakarta in early 1966 and asked if he would back the general, the Sultan reportedly laughed and asked ‘if he was still in the habit of stealing’.

—Michael Vatikiotis, 19942

Ussulau de Jesus Cepeda cast the first vote of his turbulent young life from a stretcher—his chest swaddled in bandages, a drip dangling from his arm. The East Timorese student arrived at the polling station in an ambulance driven by a Catholic nun. A huge crowd, which had begun to form well before sunrise outside the polling station—actually a dilapidated schoolhouse in a suburb of the East Timorese capital of Dili—parted respectfully to let his stretcher through. It was 30 August 1999 and Ussulau was about to vote in the referendum on East Timor’s future which would plunge the territory into violence and chaos.

Ussulau de Jesus Cepeda was one of several East Timorese students who had been shot when Indonesian soldiers opened fire on pro-independence demonstrators only a few days before. ‘I want freedom. It’s now or never,’ he whispered to a western journalist as the nun and another sister carried him into the old school house.3 Many people in the crowd were visibly moved. Some had tears in their eyes as they clenched their fists to salute the wounded student.

In some ways, Ussulau was lucky. He had a couple of gunshot wounds to his chest. Dozens of other independence supporters had been hacked with rusty machetes by ‘pro-integration militias’, East Timorese who supposedly wanted to remain with Indonesia. These militiamen were, it was said at the time, supported by ‘rogue elements’ within the Indonesian military who did not want to see East Timor break away, contrary to the government’s pledge to honour the outcome of the referendum, no matter what it would be. So, of course, it was not government policy to support these hoodlums. The United Nations (UN), which was there to supervise the referendum, even had the full backing of the Indonesian authorities when meetings were held between ‘the two sides’ to facilitate a badly needed ‘national reconciliation’.

But then all hell broke loose. An overwhelming majority—nearly 80 per cent—of the East Timorese opted for independence, and the militias went on a rampage. They killed, raped and burned down Dili and almost every other town in the impoverished territory. Heads of pro-independence supporters and ordinary civilians were stuck on bamboo stakes along the roads.

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