Eurico Guterres

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Eurico Guterres (1999)

Eurico Barros Gomes Guterres (born July 17, 1971 in Uato-Lari , Portuguese Timor ) is a former leader of the pro-Indonesian Aitarak militia in East Timor . In the fight against the independence of East Timor , he is held responsible for several massacres and the destruction of the East Timorese capital Dili . Guterres is married to the niece of the Bishop of Baucau Basílio do Nascimento and has three children.

Life

Guterres was born in Uato-Lari ( Viqueque municipality ), in what was then Portuguese Timor. His parents were killed by Indonesian soldiers in 1976 because they were considered FRETILIN supporters. Guterres later accused FRETILIN of being responsible for the death of his parents. Antonio Metan , the uncle of Eurico Guterres, was one of the leaders of the 1959 Viqueque rebellion against the Portuguese .

Young Eurico was taken in by Indonesian civilians until he was sent to the Catholic School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in Becora ( Cristo Rei ). He dropped out of upper secondary school and became involved in criminal activities, including in a government-protected arcade ( bola guling ) in Tasitolu . In 1983 he co-founded the religious group Santo Antonio , which is also described as a resistance group against the Indonesian occupation. The group is said to have been involved in a failed attempt to assassinate Indonesia's dictator Suharto during his visit to Dili in 1988 . Guterres was arrested by the Bakin Military Intelligence Service and from then on worked for the Indonesians. Guterres switched from the pro-independence to the pro-Indonesian side and became a Kopassus spy and double agent against the independence movement until he was expelled around 1990.

The then deputy of Kopassus, Prabowo Subianto (specialist in the fight against insurgents), was interested in Guterre's abilities and recruited him in 1994 for the Gardapaksi , an organization that gave cheap loans for setting up small businesses, but its members as informants and for a paramilitary vigilante used. Soares , the governor of Timor Timur , as the province was called at the time, was very supportive of Gardapaksi, who were accused of human rights abuses.

In 1997 Guterres began to attend the Dili Economic Institute. For this he supposedly got a high school diploma from the military. Although the Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi (STIE) was run by the pro-integrationist Filomeno Hornay , Guterres only attended the school for three semesters.

In April 1999 Guterres founded the militia 59/75 , whose name was a reminder of the years of the Viqueque rebellion and the Indonesian invasion. He later became the commander of the Gardapaksi, which was renamed Aitarak . During the unrest before and after the referendum on the future of East Timor, the Aitarak was one of the most active militias involved in the massacres in Dili. In cooperation with the Indonesian army and police, Guterres planned the campaign to destabilize the referendum process. At the church massacre Liquiçá of 6 April 1999 and the attack on the house of independence leader Manuel Carrascalao on April 17, Guterres said to have been involved, as in the attack on the residence of Bishop Belo on 6 September, whither 5,000 civilians had fled , as well as the church massacre in Suai . Guterres was also active in the expulsions of East Timorese.

Although the Jakarta Human Court officially sentenced Guterres to ten years in prison on November 27, 2002, Indonesia did not initially detain him. An appeals court upheld the verdict against him in 2004, but reduced Guterres' prison sentence from ten to five years. Eurico Guterres remained at large pending another appeal hearing before the Supreme Court.

In August 2003 he founded the Laskar Merah Putih (Red and White Warriors) in the Indonesian province of Papua . The head of ELSHAM , a leading human rights organization in Papua, Aloysius Renwarin, reported that Guterres had already recruited 200 supporters in December 2003, mostly Indonesians from Timor , Sulawesi and the Moluccas . Guterres had asked the local administration in Timika / Papua in confidence for the support of his group. This and the appointment of Brigadier General Timbul Silaen (former police chief of East Timor) as police chief of Papua made the population fear that Guterres and Laskar Merah Putih would be given a free hand to oppose the independence movements of the Papuan population.

In 2005 he founded the pro-integration fighters in West Timor , mostly made up of former members of his militia in East Timor. The International Crisis Group (from Brussels ) reports that this group consists of up to 10,000 people in Indonesia, 8,000 in West Timor alone.

On March 13, 2006, the Jakarta Supreme Court upheld Guterres ' ten-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity . Four of the five judges considered it proven that in April 1999 he had not prevented his supporters from attacking Manuel Carrascalão's house, which was filled with refugees. From his home in Kupang Guterres said, who now has the Indonesian nationality, by telephone to the newspaper The Jakarta Post : "I am innocent. The problems of East Timor were not entirely mine. I will ask the court to reconsider this ruling. ” It was the second conviction of a civilian for the violent events of 1999 after former governor José Abílio Osório Soares was sentenced to four years in prison by the same court in April 2004 .

In May 2006, Eurico Guterres finally began his ten-year prison sentence. He was adopted by more than 1,000 supporters in Kupang with a Catholic mass. Guterres accused Indonesia of making him the scapegoat for the violence in East Timor. The government treats him unfairly as they let him go to jail, leading military and police officers, who have greater responsibility, but get away without punishment. As a warrior, however, he is ready to go to prison for “red and white” (the colors of the Indonesian flag ). Guterres was supposed to be serving his sentence in Jakarta's maximum security prison, Cipinang . Ironically, Xanana Gusmão , a freedom fighter and later President of East Timor , was previously held here .

On April 5, 2008, the verdict against Guterres was overturned by the Supreme Court based on new testimony. Since there was no clear command structure in the militia, Guterres could not be held responsible for all of their actions. The judge cleared him of all charges. Guterres was released from prison on April 8th.

In 2009 Guterres stood as a candidate for the Partai Amanat Nasional (PAN) in the elections for the Regional Representatives Council of Indonesia. In 2014 he was elected to the regional parliament for the PAN.

Eurico Guterres has been chairman of UNTAS since 2010 .

In 2019, the East Timorese television broadcaster GMN TV had to cancel the broadcast of an interview with Eurico Guterres after there were major protests against the announcement on social networks. Guterres had already stated in an interview with Lusa in 2015 that he did not regret anything he did in East Timor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Hamish McDonald et al .: Masters of Terror: Indonesia's Military and Violence in East Timor , CANBERRA PAPERS ONSTRATEGY & DEFENSE NO. 145, Australian National University, 2002 , accessed August 9, 2020.
  2. a b Janet Gunter: Communal Conflict in Viqueque and the 'Charged' History of '59 , 8: 1, p. 37, 2007, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, ISSN  1444-2213 , doi: 10.1080 / 14442210601177977.
  3. Alex Flor: Indonesia: Ad hoc court to investigate massacre in East Timor . WG Peace Research. March 14, 2002. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  4. ^ ABC News, April 5, 2008, Indonesia releases former East Timor militia leader
  5. BBC, April 8, 2008, E Timor militia leader released
  6. Berita Satsu.com: Eurico Guterres Akhirnya Lolos ke Senayan , May 2, 2014 , accessed May 16, 2014.
  7. Antara News: Eurico Guterres to meet Timorese in Manokwari , April 13, 2011
  8. Mundo ao Minuto: Televisão timorense cancela transmissão de entrevista a Eurico Guterres , August 8, 2019 , accessed on August 9, 2019.