East Timorese resistance to the Indonesian occupation of their country is continuing despite increased repression accompanying the trial in Dili of Xanana Gusmao, leader of the Maubere National Resistance Council.
On the capture of Xanana, his deputy, Ma'Huno Bukar took over command of the resistance forces. Ma'Huno, also known as Antonio Joao Gomes de Costa, sent a letter to the Portuguese journalists which was reported in the Portuguese papers on February 19.
The letter denounced the statement by the Indonesian-installed governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares, that the resistance had surrendered. Ma'Huno reaffirmed their position that Jakarta should withdraw from East Timor and Portugal be appointed the administering power pending the holding of a referendum.
The statement indicated willingness to dialogue with Indonesia but ruled out any surrender. Ma'Huno reminded people that the struggle in East Timor had been made necessary by Indonesia's refusal to abide by a 1975 UN resolution requiring it to withdraw its forces.
Since November and during the trial, FALANTIL, the resistance's armed forces, have launched attacks against the occupation army. The most recent reports, surfacing in the Portuguese paper Publico, are of a series of attacks launched in January in the Bacau and Los Palos municipalities in eastern East Timor, in Viqueque in the south and in Same in the central part of the country.
According to the latest issue of Tapol, a resistance attack in Viqueque was in response to Jakarta soldiers raping local village women as part of terrorising the local population. Tapol reported that 42 Indonesian soldiers were killed.
The chief Catholic spokesperson in East Timor, Archbishop Carlos Belo, has been increasingly outspoken during the trial period. He is quoted as telling foreign journalists that "arrests, detentions and torture have gotten worse" since Xanana's capture. "People are afraid to walk freely. Everywhere there are military from the territorial operation. They [the army] are building houses and going to live in the villages. The people do not feel free."
During the trial the occupying regime has paraded a range of witnesses through the court to prove that Xanana was indeed what he has always acknowledged himself to be, namely, leader of the east Timorese resistance. A series of government witnesses have also tried to discredit him with accusations of terrorism.
So far no defence witnesses are scheduled. The capture of Xanana in November was followed by a wave of arrests of family members and other East Timorese nationalists. According to information released through the Catholic Church, many of these detainees have been subjected to brutal torture. The only detainee whom the International Committee of the Red Cross has been allowed to visit, apart from Xanana himself, is usmao, who is also held in Dili.
However, the Indonesian government, which is supposed to resume diplomatic discussions with Portugal at the UN in April, has had to make a number of concessions to international opinion in the conduct of the trial.
First, Xanana is being tried under the Criminal Code, not the more draconian Anti-Subversion Law.
Secondly, the foreign press coverage has also enabled Sudjono, the Legal Aid Institute lawyer covering the case, to gain international publicity for discussion of the legal status of East Timor and the legality or otherwise of the trial. Sudjono has been able to speak to the press reasonably freely so far, although there are now reports that he has been forced out of the main hotel in Dili and into a room at the back of a local restaurant that has no telephone.
Foreign journalists in Dili, both Portuguese and Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Lyndsay Murdoch, have reported being approached by East Timorese in Dili who have indicated their continuing support for the resistance and their hopes in Xanana and for some kind of independence for the country.