From the Open-Publishing Calendar
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Indybay Feature
Finding Justice for East Timor
Date:
Friday, March 15, 2002
Time:
12:00 PM
-
2:00 PM
Event Type:
Other
Organizer/Author:
Ben Terrall
Location Details:
2223 Fulton St., 6th floor
UC Berkeley
(two blocks from downtown Berk. BART0
Filomena dos Reis: "Finding Justice for East Timor"
Fri Mar 15: 12pm-2pm, UC-Berkeley, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor
Conference
Room (Center for Southeast Asia Studies)
++++++++
DIPLOMATIC DISPATCHES
Nora Boustany
Washington Post
Wednesday, March 6, 2002; Page A15
Tribunal Sought for East Timor
Filomena Barros Dos Reis worked for years as an administrative assistant
for the Indonesian administration ruling the annexed territory of East
Timor, but she also led an underground life investigating human rights
abuses. She and a small group of men and women, sleeping in different
houses every night and carrying religious materials to pass themselves
off
as nuns and priests, risked their lives to keep track of widespread
rights
violations against their fellow East Timorese.
Dos Reis was in the United States last week promoting the establishment
of
an international tribunal to bring justice to her small, war-scarred
country, whose vote for independence in August 1999 precipitated a
violent
rampage by the Indonesian military and its local militia allies. Since
then, East Timor has been under a transitional U.N. administration. It
will
celebrate its independence day on May 20.
In an interview Friday, she said that several top Indonesian military
officers would probably never be brought to justice if such a court is
not
established. The U.N. Serious Crimes Unit cannot get access to the
Indonesian military; every extradition request issued by the world body
has
been denied by the Indonesian government, she said.
"The Indonesian military still considers the East Timorese as animals,
but
our people only want justice," she said. "We wanted freedom, we had to
fight. Now we want justice and we have to fight, but I believe one day,
justice will come."
U.S. and East Timorese officials are sensitive about upsetting
Indonesia,
which has sought to make limited improvements. But with certain militia
leaders living in neighboring western Timor under Indonesian protection,
large numbers of refugees will not be eager to return, dos Reis said.
Added to the calendar on Tue, Feb 3, 2004 10:25AM
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