JAKARTA — A group of fifty pro-integration East Timorese carried out a vicious attack on the office of East Timor solidarity group Solidamor on May 24 here.
The gang, which according to an eyewitness was accompanied by a group of Indonesian soldiers who watched the attack from a distance, entered the office at around 4pm and immediately set about destroying all the office equipment and smashing the windows. Four men in the office at the time were physically attacked and injured.
Solidamor has for years played a critical role in disseminating information about East Timor in Indonesia and has been in the forefront of efforts to build solidarity in Indonesia for the people of East Timor.
It played an active role in monitoring the situation in East Timor before and during the UN ballot in August last year and was recently appointed as the liaison office in Indonesia of the CNRT, the National Council of Timorese Resistance. It has also become a centre for solidarity with people's movements in other countries of South East Asia.
The four injured activists were Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the chairperson of Solidamor, Sudarman of the division of publications and documentation, Sapolo and Iden, both on the staff of the organisation. Bonar Tigor Naipospos recently returned from a visit to Europe where he attended a conference on democratisation in South East Asia in Helsinki and an international meeting of East Timor solidarity groups in the Netherlands.
In what eyewitnesses described as a very professional operation, the attackers, who wore headbands in the colours of the Indonesian flag, drove up to the office in trucks and within minutes had destroyed every piece of office equipment, including two computers, a scanner, a fax-machine, a television set and a video machine. They then fled from the scene, taking a cash-box containing 18 million rupiah (US$2,200), two telephones, a number of documents and the personal belongings of several activists and members of staff.
The severity of the destruction is reminiscent of the wanton destruction inflicted on persons and property in East Timor by army-back militias, which reached a climax in September 1999 after the results of the UN ballot were made public. The attack has left Solidamor penniless and bereft of all its property.
The local police were called to the scene and four persons were later taken into custody on suspicion of having been involved in the attack.
[From TAPOL, the London-based Indonesian human rights watch organisation.]