Fears for captured Timorese fighter
By John Martinkus
Amnesty International has called for urgent international action pressing the Indonesian government to confirm the whereabouts of East Timorese freedom fighter Jose Antonio Belo, who it believes is being held in military custody in Baucau.
Aged 25, Jose Belo has led a traumatic life. As a young boy he fled to the mountains to escape the 1975 Indonesian invasion, only to be captured in 1978 and forced to watch Indonesian soldiers rape and kill his elder sister.
Over the next 17 years, he was arrested on seven different occasions and jailed for over nine years. In 1991 Jose witnessed the Santa Cruz massacre and was imprisoned soon afterward.
In January 1995, three Australian tourists witnessed the beating of Belo as he was arrested at a demonstration at Dili University. One of the tourists later told the Australian media, "They were beating him so hard the police van was rocking wildly like a washing machine".
For his part in the demonstration, Jose was sentenced to 18 months' jail. I spoke to him in January 1997 in the guerillas' camp outside Baucau.
"Because of the beating I received at the special command office at Colmera SGI, right now I cannot hear so clearly even if you speak very close to my ear, and I feel pain in my lungs sometimes still."
Jose was not given food or water for four days after his arrest. His arms and legs were tied, and he was suspended upside down overnight. He was then beaten with truncheons, cigarettes were extinguished on his chest and arms, and electric shocks were administered to his genitals.
Psychological torture was also used. "In the night they take us out from the prison and tell us it is because they will kill us".
Five students arrested at the same demonstration were killed before they arrived at the prison. In the next 18 months, Jose saw this treatment repeated.
"In January 1996 at Comarco Becora when we were in prison, one prisoner was shot, killed. Most of the other prisoners — I include myself in that — were tortured and violated. No one speaks out about these men."
After his release in May 1996, Jose attended a conference on the East Timor issue at the University of Technology in Sydney, where he spoke. In Darwin, he was sponsored by the Northern Territory Students Union as an honorary student.
He returned to East Timor in July and was arrested on his return. He was released on the promise that he would leave East Timor and attend university in Jakarta. The harassment by the Indonesian authorities continued; he was constantly detained, questioned and beaten. Jose joined the armed resistance in November 1996.
The hardship and danger of the life Jose had partly chosen and partly had thrust upon him were all around us as we whispered. Of the 12 fighters present, only he and one other were not carrying scars of Indonesian bullets.
Jose was under no illusions regarding his fate. "We know that we are going to die. At least we will die fighting to achieve freedom, peace and justice for our people."
Travelling to East Timor last June, I was unable to meet Jose. A spate of resistance attacks against Indonesian military targets had taken place to disrupt the Indonesian election.
The Indonesian military responded by establishing checkpoints on all roads into the city and enforcing a dusk till dawn curfew, heavily armed troops patrolling the streets throughout the night.
Communications I received from Comandante David Alex and Jose spoke of the increasing instability of their situation. A large Indonesian military offensive was under way in the Baucau and Quelicai areas. On June 10 Jose wrote:
"The situation here is very hard right now. Everywhere there is so many Indonesian soldiers and police but our Chief Comandante of Falintil [Konis Santana] has stated that we should keep fighting ..."
On June 22, David Alex wrote of Indonesian military activities in the region. Troops had begun burning down the houses of suspected resistance sympathisers in Baucau, Laga — 20 kilometres east of Baucau — and Quelicai.
Troops under the command of Kopassus officer Flaviano do Rosario executed at least five civilians outside the military cemetery in Baucau on the night of June 17.
"All vehicles are now stopped and searched at roadblocks — the Indonesian military force people to strip without any regard for the sexes. They examine the naked people looking for weapons or bullet scars. Women are stripped naked and tortured with burning cigarettes in their genitals. They are also raped."
On the morning of June 25, David Alex, Jose Belo and four other fighters were surrounded by 1000 troops in a cave four kilometres west of Baucau. David Alex was wounded; the Indonesian military claim he died of his injuries in hospital in Dili.
According to a report from inside the Baucau jail, Jose was so badly beaten he couldn't move, and his limp body was dumped in a small cell at the Kopassus headquarters at Kota Baru in central Baucau.
All queries by the Red Cross, Amnesty International and the East Timor Human Rights Centre regarding the whereabouts and condition of Jose Antonio Belo and the four others captured with him have been left unanswered.