East Timorese youths arrested and tortured

By James Balowski

On July 24, activists from the newly formed organisation Indonesian Pro-democracy Movement and Maubere People's Independence (SPRIM) informed Green Left Weekly that several East Timorese youths had been arrested and tortured over the weekend by the Guntur military police in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

This was later confirmed in a July 25 National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM) media release, which stated that four youths -- Herculano (28), Camilio (24), Seti (25) and Aniceto (23) -- were arrested at around 11pm on July 22. According to Celestino, an eyewitness who managed to avoid arrest, before being arrested they were beaten and kicked by police, who accused them of creating an unspecified “disturbance” at an earlier gathering of East Timorese.

All four remain under arrest at the military police centre in Guntur and although police have refused to comment on the exact reasons for the arrests, it is believed that they were carried out on the orders of the Indonesian intelligence agency, BAIS.

SPRIM activists also believe that one of the four may have died as a result of the injuries inflicted under torture.

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