José Abílio Osório Soares

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José Abílio Osório Soares (born June 2, 1947 in Laclubar / Portuguese Timor ; † June 17, 2007 in Kupang / Indonesia ) was an East Timorese politician and the last Indonesian governor of East Timor (then Timor Timur ) during the occupation.

Life

During the occupation of East Timor by Indonesia (1975-1999) Soares was first mayor of Dili , later district administrator ( Bupati ) of his homeland Manatuto and from September 18, 1992 to 1999, the last Governor of Timor Timur sent by Indonesia , like the country as an Indonesian region was called. Immediately after taking office, he outraged the world with his statement that "many more had to die" in the Santa Cruz massacre that had recently taken place . In May 1994 he proposed an autonomy for East Timor within Indonesia to resolve the East Timor conflict, which the Indonesian President Suharto rejected as being unconstitutional. Soares was then sent to Jakarta for four months on a military course, which is to be regarded as a disciplinary measure.

During Soares' second term in office from September 1997, his involvement in corruption cases in connection with the family-owned Anak Liambau Group became so massive that even Lieutenant Governor Suryo Prabowo resigned in protest in 1998. After Suharto's abdication in May 1998, serious demonstrations broke out in East Timor over allegations of corruption against Soares. At the same time, there was increased public pressure calling for an independence referendum.

Soares played a key role in building up the militias that spread fear and terror across the country after the referendum on the independence of East Timor on August 30, 1999 . He was also held directly responsible for some cases, such as the massacres in the Church of Liquiça on April 6, 1999, in the house of the independence leader Manuel Carrascalão on April 17, 1999, in the residence of Bishop Belo on September 6, 1999 and in a church in Suai on September 6, 1999. In connection with these cases, he was charged with doing nothing to prevent these crimes. With the intervention ( INTERFET ) and takeover of power by the United Nations ( UNTAET ), which later led East Timor to independence, Soares was deposed.

Soares was sentenced to three years in prison by the Human Rights Court in Jakarta / Indonesia in 2003 for crimes against humanity. The prosecution had asked for ten and a half years. The Jakarta Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict on April 12, 2004. After only four months in detention, a challenge to the sentence was successful and Soares was released, which was heavily criticized by human rights organizations. The reason for the reversal of the judgment was that East Timor was then under military administration and therefore the civilian governor could not be held responsible for the crimes. Soares then lived in Kupang in West Timor .

In 2005 Soares contracted colon cancer . In mid-June 2007 he fell into a coma and died on June 17, 2007 in the WZ Johannes Hospital in Kupang. On June 15, Soares was still visited by ex-General Wiranto , the commander in chief of the Indonesian army during the violence of 1999. Soares was buried with a “hero's burial ” at the Dharmaloka Heroes Cemetery.

family

José Abílio Osório Soares had four children with his wife Maria Angela Correia de Lemos Osório Soares . José Fernando Osório Soares , the General Secretary of APODETI was the brother of José Abílio Osório Soares, Nicolau dos Reis Lobato , Vice President of FRETILIN, was her cousin. The sister Lucia Osório Soares was a short time with the FRETILIN founder Francisco Xavier do Amaral married.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Masters of Terror: Jose Abilio Osorio Soares ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on November 26, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / syaldi.web.id
  2. ↑ Gulf Times, July 18, 2006, Former governor of Timor no more ( Memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ People's Daily, June 20, 2007, Ex-East Timor governor given hero's burial
  4. ↑ "Part 3: The History of the Conflict" (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
  5. ↑ David Hicks: Rhetoric and the Decolonization and Recolonization of East Timor , 2014, ISBN 9781317695349 .
personal data
SURNAME Soares, José Abílio Osório
BRIEF DESCRIPTION East Timorese politician, last Indonesian governor of East Timor
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Laclubar , Portuguese Timor
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 2007
Place of death Kupang , Indonesia