Tono Suratman

Pronunciation of "Tono Suratman"

Tono Suratman (actually Suhartono Suratman ; born September 6, 1952 in Makassar , Indonesia ) is an officer in the Indonesian Army TNI . From 1998 to 1999 he was in command of Military Command 164 / Wiradharma (Komandan Korem 164 / Wiradharma), the highest military commander in East Timor, which was occupied by Indonesia . Suratman is held responsible for various human rights violations at the end of the occupation from August 1998 until the Indonesian withdrawal in September 1999.

Career

Suratman graduated from the Military Academy in 1975. For an undisclosed time until 1996 he commanded the Indonesian troops in Combat Sector A in the east of East Timor. Then he took over command of Kopassus Group 3, a training unit in Batujajar ( West Java ). East Timorese militia leaders were also trained in this unit . During this time Suratman also completed an apprenticeship in Great Britain . On June 10, 1998, Colonel Suratman was appointed Commander in Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces in East Timor after his predecessor was killed in a helicopter crash. Suratman retained command of the Kopassus Group 3, so that the supply of the paramilitary groups with weapons via the Kopassus was further secured.

In August 1998 Suratman met the militia leaders João da Costa Tavares , Eurico Guterres and Câncio de Carvalho . The militia leaders were told that they had to "protect" the "integration" of East Timor in Indonesia. At a follow-up meeting in November Suratman asked Guterres to found an organization similar to the pro-Indonesian youth movement Garda Paksi to defend integration. In an interview in December Suratman said the military would train five to ten men in each village to fight the guerrillas of the Forças Armadas de Libertação Nacional de Timor-Leste (FALINTIL). When Indonesia's President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie announced his readiness to hold an independence referendum on August 30 , 1999 , Suratman was openly critical of this. In February he met again with militiamen and urged them to act. The TNI would support them. From then on, Suratman's office became the central organization point of the pro-Indonesian militias in East Timor, alongside the Satuan Gabungan Intelijen (SGI) of the Kopassus. Militiaman Hermino da Costa said in an interview that Suratman had allowed the militias to attack and kill the homes of independence supporters of FRETILIN and CNRT as long as the militiamen did not commit ordinary crimes, such as stealing cars or stealing food.

Further meetings with militiamen followed. For example, on May 11, 1999, a secret meeting of the militia chiefs, local military chiefs, the secret service and the police organized by Suratman, at which plans to commit acts of violence against independence activists were discussed. The politicians Domingos Maria das Dores Soares and Armindo Soares Mariano took over the organization of the measures . On June 18, measures were discussed if the referendum takes place and turns out to be to the detriment of Indonesia. East Timor was then to be divided into operational areas among the militias. A conference followed on July 24th to use the scorched earth tactic as a punitive measure . Police and military should support the Aitarak militia, which should operate in the foreground.

In an interview with an Australian television station in June 1999 before the referendum, Suratman stated:

"I want to give you this message: If the pro-independence side wins, it is not going to be just the government of Indonesia that has to deal with what follows. The UN and Australia are also going to have to solve the problem, for there will be no limit. Everything is going to be destroyed. East Timor will not exist as it does now. It'll be much worse than 23 years ago. "

Similar statements followed later. The United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) began to pressure Indonesia to withdraw officers who promoted militia violence. Suratman was therefore replaced on August 13, 1999 as Commander-in-Chief by Colonel Nur Muis . Suratman has been promoted to brigadier general and deputy spokesman for TNI headquarters. When the voters voted in favor of independence in the referendum, Operation Donner was the last wave of violence in East Timor, in which the Indonesian security forces were also involved in addition to the militias.

The Indonesian Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Abuses in East Timor, KPP-HAM, accuses Suratman of failing to prevent soldiers under his command from participating in militia operations. He is also accused of planning meetings with the militia. On July 1, 2002, Suratman was indicted in the Indonesian ad hoc court in Jakarta , in particular with the church massacre in Liquiçá and the massacre at Manuel Carrascalão's house in April 1999. The church massacre took place shortly after Suratman's arrival in Liquiçá instead of. In the case of the massacre in Manuel Carrascalão's house, Suratman personally rejected a request for help on the grounds that "the TNI is neutral". Suratman was acquitted on May 22, 2003, which met with widespread lack of understanding.

In a book, Suratman denies that the TNI was responsible for the violence of the militias. With the East Timorese, conflicts are deeply rooted, as is a "culture of violence" and "civil war". He had to overcome this in order to carry out the vote successfully. The Serious Crimes Unit in Dili has no doubt that Suratman acted wrongly. In absentia, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Special Panels for Serious Crimes (SPSC) on February 24, 2003 , along with six other leaders, including General Wiranto and Governor José Abílio Osório Soares .

In 2010 Suratman retired from the army as a major general. From 2011 to 2015 he was chairman of the KONI National Sports Committee. He has been the head of the KONI Center since 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Masters of Terror: Col (Inf) Tono Suratman FX , accessed November 28, 2018.
2. ↑ Masters of Terror: Domingos Maria das Dores Soares ( Memento of the original from August 29, 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 November 28, 2018. 
3. ↑ Ben Somerford: PSSI warn against Indonesian government plans to take over embattled body , March 17, 2012 , accessed November 28, 2018.