Timorese guerillas stand firm

By Jon Land

Claims by the Indonesian military that it is scaling down operations in East Timor and that the armed wing of the East Timorese resistance, FALINTIL (Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor), no longer poses a threat, have been refuted by guerilla leader Nino Konis Santana. Santana has called for peace talks and withdrawal of the Indonesian military.

“We know we can't defeat the Indonesians, but they will never defeat us”, he told Jill Jolliffe in an interview conducted in East Timor and reported in the August 26 Sydney Morning Herald.

He strongly condemned the Australian government for its relations with Indonesia: “For us, Australia's closeness to Indonesia is an affront to the pluralist democracy Australia claims to represent. Our nearest neighbour contributes nothing to a solution of the Timor problem ... Effectively it is supporting the extermination of our people.”

Santana confirmed that the Indonesian forces are carrying out a new offensive and that 13 to 15 battalions are currently active throughout East Timor. In a letter smuggled out to Darwin in early August, he told of military operations that have been going on for several weeks involving helicopters in the central mountain region and a major build-up to the east of Dili in the Baucau region.

The Portuguese language O Portuguese Na Australia reported on August 24 that the Clandestine Front of the Resistance in East Timor had sent information to Lisbon on incursions carried out by FALINTIL guerillas in mid-July, which resulted in the deaths of 11 Indonesian soldiers near the town of Los Palos.

Recent calls to begin peace negotiations from Santana and the bishop of Dili, Bishop Belo, have been met with derision by the Indonesian military command. A Major Simbolon told Agence France-Presse on August 21, “This is a propaganda effort to make people know that they [FALINTIL] still exist ... but indeed they have been paralysed and no longer exist”.

While admitting the difficult situation they face, Santana and the resistance fighters remain active and defiant. “It is impossible to defeat us, because we have the civilian population on our side and we will fight to the last, whether it is with guns, bows and arrows, sticks or our bare hands”, he told Jolliffe.

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