Welcome
This website contains information about the Indonesian military's crimes against humanity
in East Timor and is divided into the following subjects:
Sexual violence
Torture
Enslavement
Deportation or forcible transfer
Imprisonment
Murder, Extermination and Enforced disappearance
It also explains why there can be no impunity for the perpetrators.
Crimes Against Humanity in East Timor
Crimes Against Humanity are certain inhumane acts carried out as part of a ‘widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population’[1]. They are crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, and do not fall exclusively under national jurisdiction.
Unlike war crimes, the law of crimes against humanity applies even in the absence of armed conflict.
Unlike war crimes, the law of crimes against humanity protects victims regardless of their nationality.
Unlike war crimes, the law of crimes against humanity deals with actions directed primarily against civilian populations.
Unlike the Genocide Convention, the law of crimes against humanity is not restricted to crimes committed against only ‘national, ethnical, racial or religious’ targets.
Crimes against humanity in East Timor
On 7th December 1975, Indonesia illegally invaded East Timor, which had been declared a non-self-governing territory within the meaning of Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter[2]. During the 24-year occupation, there were numerous reports of killings, famine, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The question of East Timor remained on the UN’s agenda for the duration, with the UN General Assembly reaffirming its right to self-determination.
The Indonesian dictator, Suharto, was eventually forced to resign on 21st May 1998, resulting in a re-opening of the issue of Timorese self-determination. Suharto’s successor, President B.J. Habibie, agreed to allow the Timorese to choose between independence and autonomy within Indonesia. An agreement was concluded with the UN and Portugal, the former colonial power in East Timor, whereby the East Timorese would vote on the question of independence. The ballot would be administered by the UN, but Indonesia insisted that it would retain sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order. Meanwhile, the Indonesian authorities intensified a terror campaign under the guise of proxy forces, known as ‘militias’, in order to compel the East Timorese to reject independence.
The UN Security Council established the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), enabling the ballot to occur on 30 August 1999. On 4 September 1999, the results of the vote were announced; with 98% of registered voters participating, only 21.5% favoured special autonomy while 78.5% chose independence. The Indonesian authorities immediately carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign in East Timor, deporting approximately 250,000 people across the border into Indonesian West Timor. Approximately 70% of the buildings in East Timor were destroyed, vital infrastructure was crippled, and there were more than 1,400 killings, as well as acts of rape, looting and arson.
Indonesia’s first civilian defence minister, Juwono Sudarsono, unwittingly conceded that his country had committed state-sponsored terror, saying that senior military personnel ‘were just carrying out state policy’[3]. Under mounting international pressure, the UN Security Council established a multinational force, the International Force – East Timor (INTERFET), with the power to restore security by force[4].
The conclusion of Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights
As Indonesian forces were leaving East Timor and command was being transferred to an international peacekeeping force, Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights established the Special Team to Investigate Human Rights Violations in East Timor. It did so in circumstances of intense international pressure for the perpetrators of the 1999 crimes to be tried. The team was composed of leading Indonesian figures such as Marzuki Darusman, Albert Hasibuan, Asmara Nababan, Kusparmono Irsan, HS Dillon, Munir, Todung Mulya Lubis, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana and Zoemrotin K Susilo. Despite its limited mandate (it would not look at the 24 year occupation but only the last nine months from January 1999 until the departure of Indonesian forces), its official report was a courageous and honest statement of the facts. It concluded that:
There was a strong relationship and linkage between the Indonesian military, the Police, the government bureaucracy and the militias.
The violence was not caused by a civil war but was the result of a systematic campaign of violence.
There was evidence of actions that could be classified as gross human rights violations for which the state [Indonesia] is responsible.
There was evidence of crimes that could be classified as crimes of universal jurisdiction including systematic and mass murder; extensive destruction, enslavement, forced deportations and displacement and other inhumane acts committed against the civilian population.
The official Indonesian report identified three classes of perpetrators:
Those who committed crimes directly, including militia members, Indonesian military and police.
Those who ran the field operations in the civilian bureaucracy including district heads, the governor and local military and local police officials.
Those who held responsibility for security policy, including high level military officials who were involved and knew about the reign of violence but failed to do anything to prevent it.
The International Commission of Inquiry into East Timor
On 27th September 1999, the UN Commission on Human Rights responded to the grave violations of human rights by appointing an International Commission of Inquiry into East Timor. The Commission submitted its report to the UN Secretary-General on 6 January 2000. It reported that its members ‘were confronted with testimonies surpassing their imagination’[5]. It recommended that the UN should establish an international human rights tribunal to bring perpetrators of serious violations to justice.
The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor
The most detailed examination of life under the Indonesian occupation was made by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (known by its Portuguese initials CAVR). It was established as an independent statutory authority in July 2001 by the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor, and was mandated to inquire into human rights abuses between April 1974 and December 1999[6]. It was also mandated to facilitate reconciliation and justice for less serious offenses.
Chega! made a number of other findings, including the following:
The Indonesian security forces engaged in widespread and systematic rape and other forms of sexual violence throughout the entire period of the occupation, openly and with official compliance.
The people of East Timor experienced repeated periods of displacement, causing major disruption to those affected, including major loss of life.
Arbitrary detention, often involving torture and ill-treatment, was the most common violation suffered by the East Timorese people.
The Indonesian security forces violated the laws of war or Geneva Conventions in a systematic and widespread manner.
Children suffered the full range of human rights violations, including killings, sexual violence, displacement and detention.
Chega! benefited from scientifically-defensible estimates of the number of East Timorese killed during the occupation. Benetech, a California-based nonprofit organization devoted to using technology in the service of humanity, established a firm foundation of fact. It built on a database of three independent sources: narrative statements, a retrospective mortality survey, and a census of public graveyards[7]. The first source consisted of approximately 8,000 narrative testimonies in which patterns of abuses such as arbitrary detentions, torture, rape and massive property destruction were reported to the CAVR. The second source was a survey of 1,396 households that were randomly selected from East Timor’s approximately 180,000 households. Each sampled household gave information about their residence pattern and household members and relatives who died during the occupation. While these mortality surveys are standard procedure in governmental statistics, no truth commission had previously conducted one. The third source was the graveyard census database, developed by visiting all public cemeteries in East Timor and recording the name, date of birth and date of death for approximately 319,000 graves. Although this is standard procedure in the field of historical demography, no truth commission had previously conducted one.
Chega! was therefore able to establish that up to 183,000 East Timorese civilians died due to conflict-related causes during the period 1974-1999.
[1] Article 5 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) defined the context as ‘when committed in armed conflict, whether international or internal in character, and directed against any civilian population’. Article 3 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) defined the context as ‘when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds’. Article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the context as ‘when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population’.
[2] Among other things, this implies ‘a sacred trust’ to uphold ‘the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories’.
[3] Interview with Jason Tedjasukmana, Time magazine, vol 155, no 8, 28 February 2000.
[4] Resolution 1264, 15 September 1999.
[5] Para 34, Report of the International Commission of Inquiry in East Timor, 6 January 2000.
[6] UNTAET Regulation 2001/10.
Email: info@timorjustice.info