Câncio de Carvalho

Câncio Lopes de Carvalho (* 1960s) is a former leader of pro-Indonesian militias in the Indonesian- occupied East Timor (then Timor Timur ).

Career

Carvalho was the fourth of ten children of Mateus and Margarida Lopes de Carvalho. Mateus was the Liurai of Cassa ( Ainaro district ). As a child, Câncio was forced by Indonesian soldiers to help in military operations (Tenaga Bantuan Operasi TBO) . After pre-secondary school in Ainaro , he lived with the family of an Indonesian soldier in Surabaya ( East Java ), where he completed secondary school. For a while, Câncio de Carvalho lived with the family of Arnaldo dos Reis Araújo in Jakarta . Araújo was Indonesian governor of Timor Timur from 1976 to 1978. But since Carvalho's stories about women were displeased, he was sent back to East Timor, where he started to work in Dili in the judicial office. In 1994 he was a civil servant and in May 1998 Carvalho moved to the office in Kupang, West Timor . Here he married a West Timorese who belonged to the local Tetum minority.

After the Santa Cruz massacre in November 1991, Carvalho became an informant for the Satuan Gabungan Intelijen (SGI), the Kopassus secret service . Together with the sons of members of the pro-Indonesian party Associação Popular Democrática Timorense (APODETI) he founded a youth group based in Cassa on the instructions of the SGI. It was called the Volunteer Corps ( Indonesian pasukan sukarelawan ). This group was used to intimidate independence activists.

In August 1998, Carvalho, together with militia leaders João da Costa Tavares and Eurico Guterres , met the Indonesian military commander in chief for East Timor, Tono Suratman . The militia leaders were told that they had to "protect" the "integration" of East Timor in Indonesia. The meeting can be seen as the starting shot for the violence of the militias against the independence activists who worked towards an independence referendum after the fall of the Indonesian dictatorship in May.

Members of Mahidi 1999

Under the direction of the SGI, Carvalho reactivated his youth group from the early 1990s and renamed them Mahidi ( Mati Hidup Demi Integrasi , German  death or life for integration ). On January 1, 1999, the militia was sworn in in the presence of the chiefs of the Indonesian police and the military in Ainaro. Its main base was again in Cassa. Some members are said to have been forced into the militia. Carvalho's brother Nemecio (also Remecio or Remesio ) held the post of intelligence officer in the militia. The militia was founded as a result of the increasingly militant mood of the independence supporters in the Ainaro district. Some houses had gone up in flames. In April 1999 Mahidi had 1,000 to 2,000 members and around 500 firearms. Carvalho told the BBC in an interview that he had received an automatic weapon from the military command in Ainaro. They were trained by local Indonesian officers.

From December 1998, Mahidi began to attack independence supporters and the population. Torture, murders, evictions and abductions occurred. Carvalho was partially present at these incidents and directly ordered such crimes. In particular, a raid on the village of Galitas ( Cova Lima district ) on January 25, 1999, in which three people were killed and five injured, caused a national stir because the body of a murdered pregnant woman was desecrated. In the BBC interview, Carvalho apparently spoke of the incident with pride. TV footage of the massacre at Manuel Carrascalão's house shows Carvalho firing an M16 rifle . In April 1999 Carvalho was appointed commander of the Association of Militias PPI in Sector III. He was nominally responsible for the militias Mahidi, Laksaur , ABLAI and AHI . Several times he threatened war if the East Timorese should decide in favor of independence in the independence referendum on August 30, 1999 . Shortly before the vote, Carvalho gave a militiaman a death list with at least 100 known independence supporters. When the referendum actually voted for independence, the Mahidi created a regime of terror in Cassa. Several people were murdered.

The arrival of the international intervention force INTERFET in the region in early October ended the violence of the militia and Indonesian security forces. Carvalho fled to Kupang, where he settled down and helped reorganize the PPI. In January 2000, he and his militiamen threatened to burn the city down if Indonesia forced the East Timorese refugees to return to East Timor. In October 2000, Carvalho announced that he had sent men from his militia to guerrilla action in East Timor. At the same time, he offered the Secretary-General of the United Nations information about the Kopassus' involvement in the 1999 violence in exchange for an amnesty if they returned to East Timor. The UNTAET refused.

22 Mahidi militiamen were charged with crimes against humanity on February 28, 2003, including Câncio de Carvalho and his brother Nemecio. The indictment highlighted the murder of eleven civilians and the eviction of the residents of the village of Mau-Nuno on September 23, 1999, the murder of two youths on January 3 in Manutaci , the murder of the pro-independence activists on January 25 and murder Persecution of some students in the Cova Lima district on April 13th. At that time, all of the defendants were no longer in East Timor, but in Indonesia. Arrest warrants were filed in the Dili District Court and forwarded to the Attorney General of Indonesia and Interpol . Some militiamen have been sentenced to prison terms.

Others

Câncio's brother Francisco de Carvalho enjoyed a better education and, like Câncio, was an informant for the SGI.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Master of Terror: Cancio Lopes de Carvalho ( Memento of the original dated November 29, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was 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. 
2. ↑ Masters of Terror: Col (Inf) Tono Suratman FX ( Memento of the original from November 28, 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. ^ ETAN, February 28, 2003, 3 New indictments filed at Dili Court