Timor: Tiny enclave's quest for
peace By Jill Jolliffe
PANTE
MACASSAR, East Timor - The 45,000 inhabitants of East
Timor's tiny enclave of Oecusse have suffered isolation
and economic disadvantage as a result of independence in
2002, but this has not altered their passionately
nationalist views.
After independence, their
borders were sealed, leaving them surrounded on three
sides by Indonesian territory classified as more
dangerous than Iraq by the United Nations. Customary
trade with West Timor essential to the Oecusse economy
also ended, and contact with East Timor's main territory
was reduced. Jakarta's stubborn refusal to grant a land
corridor between the enclave and the border, 80
kilometers away, means that sea transport, which few can
afford, is the only effective way to connect.
"The creation of a land corridor to the border
is our main problem," Oecusse administrator Francisco
Marques claimed. "We have an agreement in principle with
Indonesia, but there are still many refugees, including
ex-militiamen, living in West Timor, and Jakarta claims
it can't guarantee our safety."
The continued
concentration of militia groups close to the main border
is one reason the UN retains a Phase 5 security alert
for the Indonesian half of the island (higher than that
for Iraq and Afghanistan, which are Phase 4). It was
imposed after three UN employees were murdered by
militia gangs in the town of Atambua in June 2000. It
remains in force although there has been no violence in
West Timor since. Most locals would like to see it
lifted because it stokes tensions on both sides,
impeding normalization.
Administrator Marques
sees the refusal of a land corridor - still under
negotiation between the Indonesian and East Timorese
foreign ministers - as motivated more by bad faith than
security concerns. "Indonesia created the [militia]
problem - why can't it control them?" he asked.
These lingering tensions flared in December when
the Indonesian military staged war games on an
uninhabited island five kilometers offshore from
Oecusse. Known as Fatu Sinai in East Timor and Batek in
Indonesia, both countries are laying claim to the land.
A UN-led joint commission began mapping all contiguous
borders before independence and agreement on claims has
not yet been reached, but Jakarta didn't wait for the
outcome.
According to a UN military observers'
report, it turned on a show of force that terrified
Oecusse residents watching from a nearby beach, strafing
and rocketing the island with an F-16 jet, a helicopter
and a warship.
Dili issued a formal protest, and
West Timorese commander Colonel Moeswarno Moesanip upped
the stakes by announcing he would station soldiers on
the island. East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos
Horta deplored his attitude as "aggressive", saying it
would complicate bilateral relations.
Old-fashioned dignity Pante Macassar
is the capital of Oecusse, where people live much as
they did centuries before. Unlike their Dili
counterparts, most men wear locally woven sarongs
instead of trousers, striding around the town with an
air of great dignity. Cigarettes are made from
home-grown tobacco rolled in palm leaves and local
lighters sometimes consist of two stones skillfully
struck against each other to produce a spark.
The town is just a few rows of houses set
against a crystal-clear, palm-fringed beach. There is no
television, no bank and almost no crime. The only radio
station is dependent on an occasionally functioning
transmitter, while electricity is restricted to five
hours in the evening. But simplicity is happiness:
people talk to each other, sharing problems, and the
whole town comes to watch the daily soccer match, played
beachside as the tropical dusk sets in.
Life in
the dry, mountainous interior is even more spartan but,
once again, there is a cultural richness lacking in more
developed societies.
From Pante Macassar, a
ferry plies the 12-hour voyage to Dili twice a week. An
economy ticket for a human passenger costs US$7 - a
week's wages - while a ticket for a cow costs $11.
Cattle-raising is key to the local economy, and before
independence farmers sold their stock profitably in West
Timor. Since the border was sealed, however, they must
either sell within the enclave, at about $50 per head,
or transport the cattle to Dili, where they fetch $100.
Trials and travails of the 'Black
Portuguese' At Lifau, a kilometer or so along the
beach, there is a cairn marking the spot where
Portuguese navigators and priests first came ashore on
Timor in 1505. It was to be 1702 before they established
a permanent foothold, thanks to the tumultuous ways of
the Oecussians. Known as the "Black Portuguese", they
were famed throughout the South Seas for conducting wars
against rival tribes on behalf of the Portuguese one
day, and fighting them the next.
In 1653 the
Dutch entered the Timorese fray, seizing a Portuguese
fort at Kupang, capital of present-day West Timor.
British mariner William Dampier passed by
Oecusse in 1699 and observed that its inhabitants "speak
Portugueze and are of the Romish Religion; but they take
the Liberty to eat Flesh when they please. They value
themselves on account of their Religion and descent from
the Portugueze ..."
Despite being constantly
attacked, Lifau continued as the capital until 1769,
when the besieged governor, Antonio Telles de Menezes,
transferred to Dili.
The Dutch and Portuguese
settled colonial boundaries in the early 20th century,
dividing the island in half with the exception of the
enclave. Ethnically, the people of Oecusse are closest
to the West Timorese, with whom they share a language,
but their distinctive personality has bloomed with
isolation.
They resisted being absorbed by
Sukarno's Indonesia after independence in 1949, and
remained loyal to Dili during the Suharto dictatorship's
24-year occupation. At the time of the 1975 invasion
they had no option but to surrender quietly, but
pro-independence feeling remained as strong as that of
the mainlanders.
Francisco Marques recalls that
many suffered for their views: "There was no military
conflict here, but Fretilin [independence party]
supporters were beaten and imprisoned ...There was a lot
of repression."
Further, Oecusse was not spared
the violence of 1999, after the UN entered East Timor
and held an independence referendum. Sixty-five unarmed
independence supporters were hacked to death by
Indonesian-backed militiamen, and 90 percent of its
buildings were torched. Perpetrators are currently being
tried for crimes against humanity by the UN's special
court in Dili.
Praise for a forgotten
land Although this forgotten land has been
prejudiced in many ways by independence, its loyalty
also has been rewarded. In 2002 the new constitution
granted the enclave special autonomous status. Given
East Timor's poverty, it will be some years before all
the benefits are realized, although Oecusse residents
are already enjoying income tax exemption.
"We
need to run our own household," Marques observed. "We
are economically disadvantaged by isolation. Our human
resources are poorer - poverty means people's health
isn't so good, and they are educationally
disadvantaged."
The big concern remains
security. Marques believes that, despite the
saber-rattling, Indonesia will do the right thing. "We
worry about security, but we believe it is unlikely to
invade East Timor again," he said. "Now that we are
independent, a UN member, it is difficult. There might
be small problems of destabilization, but not invasion."
Arsenio Bano, East Timor's youthful secretary of
state for labor and solidarity, describes himself as
"very proud to be a guy from Oecusse", adding that
people from the enclave "feel special, because East
Timor was born from Oecusse".
He has long
championed the idea of declaring the enclave a special
demilitarized zone, pointing out that its isolation and
insecurity also affect West Timor. "A military approach
is not viable," he asserted, adding that the idea could
be incorporated in a treaty between Jakarta and Dili. He
believes a phase-by-phase move to total
demilitarization, taking in Indonesia's special needs
and Oecusse's friendly ties with the West Timorese, will
create an exemplary zone of peace, where borders could
be relaxed and mutual trade resumed. It would, he
thinks, be a fitting tribute to his colorful people.
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