Date: Sunday, April 18, 1999 2:00 AM
Subject: Dili update, Saturday evening


Report from an anonymous foreigner currently in Dili:


Dili Saturday, 14:20

After parading in military formation for several hours outside the
provincial governor's office under the careful direction of Indonesian
military officers, more than 1000 armed pro-Indonesian paramilitary
members have taken control of the streets of Dili.

On motorbike, truck and on foot, the paramilitaries bearing traditional
and automatic weapons are at this moment moving around the capital at
will, shooting in the air, burning, ransacking homes, including that of
independence leader, Manuel Carrascalao.  Part of Becora market and at
least a half-dozen houses have been razed.  The streets are empty save for
the paramilitary groups and the accompanying special mobile police units.

 It is impossible to know the full extent of the damage and violence.
There are no confirmed deaths yet, but the paramilitary rampage may have
only just begun.

Dili Saturday 19:14

The military continues to give free run to pro-Indonesian paramilitary
groups.  We now know that at least 9 people, including the adopted son of
Manuel Carrascalao, have been shot dead, probably all by the
paramilitaries, though perhaps some by Indonesian security forces
supervising them. Photographers were told they would be shot if they took
pictures. The offices of the local newspaper, Suara Tim Tim, have been
smashed up.  Little else is known; no journalist dares go on the streets.

Dili Saturday, 19:39:

Army has confirmed 13 dead, and other reports say
between 20 and 30 dead.  Paramilitary men entered the Makhota hotel,
climbed to the 2nd floor and roughed up foreign journalists, including the
head of Agence France Presse in Indonesia. Indonesian police and army do
nothing.

Dili Saturday 21:38

A report, unconfirmed, but from a reliable source. Apparently, the area
around Liquica, where last week's massacre occurred, was cordoned off
earlier today or this evening, and killing, whether by paramilitary or
military I was not told, began. The source said four truckloads of dead
bodies were transported from the area and dogs were chewing on the bodies
of dead left on the ground.

----------------------------------

>From everything I have seen and heard, it seems that most of the
paramilitary members are unwilling participants and they do no violence.
As was true of last year's pro-integration demonstrations, most
pro-Indonesian paramilitary members have been forced in some way to
participate. Others have been paid.  There is a small hard core who do the
shooting and killing. Some of them, at least, are from West Timor, perhaps
even members of the military.

The photos and film footage of the international media all focus
on the paramilitary men.  Their army handlers stand in the background,
grinning evilly.

Eurico Guterres, a paramilitary leader, said at the rally this morning
that he wants to wipe out all the former pro-Indonesian East Timorese who
now support independence.  Carrascalao is one of them.  He also talked
about splitting East Timor in two, with the area west of Dili under some
sort of pro-Indonesian government.  The paramilitaries are strongest and
have been most active in this area; Liquica, site of last week's massacre,
is the major western town on the north coast.

We all expect more bad news.

There are reports of Falintil guerrilla attacks on small Indonesian
outposts throughout the country, but the guerrillas are not strong enough
to do much more than this without suffering intolerably high numbers of
casualties themselves.

The coming days and coming months both seem more and more difficult to
predict.  To twist around an old slogan from the struggle in El Salvador,
Will history here be written with a gun or with a pen, I can not guess.

***********************************************************
Charles Scheiner
National Coordinator, East Timor Action Network/US
P.O. Box 1182, White Plains, New York 10602 USA
Telephone:1-914-428-7299; fax:1-914-428-7383
[log in to unmask]    PGP key available on request.
Check out ETAN's web site: http://www.etan.org
For information on East Timor write [log in to unmask]


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