Stephanie Coop visited East Timor in August as part of the International Federation for East Timor Observer Project (IFET-OP), an independent monitoring organization which brought 125 UNAMET-accredited observers from 22 countries to East Timor.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still stubbornly refusing to admit that there is any connection between the Indonesian military (who planned, directed, and participated in the horrific slaughter which occurred in East Timor after the August 30 ballot) and East Timorese "civilian militias". Maybe the following evidence will change its mind.

The IFET-OP team in Same (a town in south-west East Timor) had access to tapes of unencoded radio transmissions in August and September between the Kopassus special forces and the Ablai militia who were active in the area.

The tapes clearly show Kopassus directing the militia as subordinate troops within a unified command structure.

For example, on September 1 Kopassus ordered Ablai to stop and kill the Same IFET-OP team:

Kopassus: "Those white people ... should be put in the river."

Militia (passing on the order): "If they want to leave, pull them out, kill them and put them in the river."

Kopassus: "They need to be stopped. The car needs to be stopped."

Militia: "It will be done."

Kopassus: "If they go to Ainaro [town further to the west], they should send people to close the road there ... the green Kijang [jeep] with the big tyre in the back."

The military and the militia then discussed where the militia should block the roads, and whom they should stop, with Kopassus concluding "Nobody will leave Same."

On August 27, the Same team heard conversations where Kopassus directed the militia when and where to pick up rifles, suggesting that it be done on August 30 because UNAMET would be busy then. The military officer coordinated between the militia groups Ablai and Mahidi. Other overheard conversations revealed military involvement in campaigning, and the directive for militias to keep their radios on all night, waiting for a military order to initiate mayhem.

It doesn't get much clearer than this.

To add insult to injury, the Japanese government has generously donated a paltry 200 million yen in emergency aid to help East Timor. As a government which has played a crucial role in propping up the Indonesian military dictatorship for decades with huge amounts of ODA money and diplomatic support, they'll be lucky if it's not thrown back in their face in disgust. 200 million yen to compensate for all those lives lost and destroyed, all those dying silently inside from terrible grief and sorrow, and a country almost completely ruined?

To make matters worse, it appears that there are no plans to review Japanese ODA to Indonesia, despite the fact that the "4 principles" governing its allocation state that it must not be given to countries which commit severe human rights abuses. If Indonesia is not a human rights violator, which country is?

The situation for the East Timorese is still horrific. The Indonesian military has carried out a well-planned campaign to kill and kidnap the majority of the population, with thousands estimated dead and hundreds of thousands forcibly displaced to militia-controlled concentration camps in West Timor and other unknown destinations in Indonesia. There have been repeated reports of forced evacuees being pushed off ships and aeroplanes, abducted from prison camps, and hunted down in Kupang and other Indonesian towns. 

Pro-independence leaders, educated people, and clergy have been particularly targeted for assassination in order to ensure no-one capable of leading a future free East Timor is left alive. Thousands are dying of starvation, dehydration and disease while the Indonesian government uses legal pretexts to delay and prevent emergency humanitarian aid from being delivered by air or on land.

This situation must not be allowed to continue. Please contact Prime Minister Obuchi (Fax: 03-3592-1754, or online opinion box at http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/question.html) and urge him to:

1. freeze ODA to Indonesia until all Indonesian troops have been withdrawn from East Timor and all forced evacuees have safely returned home; 
2. provide generous emergency aid to East Timor; and 
3. support a tribunal to bring those responsible for crimes against humanity in East Timor to justice, to be prosecuted up to the highest level of command.