The former East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres is trying to set up a new group in Indonesia’s Papua province that human rights groups fear may quickly become a militia used to attack suspected separatists. Although an Indonesian human rights court this year sentenced Guterres to 10 years’ jail for crimes committed in East Timor’s bloody vote for independence, he remains free pending an appeal and appears to have support among security forces in Papua for his new venture.
| How very... ummm... convenient. |
In September Guterres instructed two members of his new organisation, the Red and White Defender’s Front (FPMP), to set up a branch in Timika, Papua, to counter a decades old campaign among some Papuans to separate from Indonesia. He accused foreign and Indonesian non-government organisations of encouraging Papua to secede from Indonesia and singled out Australian NGOs for special mention, although he refused to name any. "Most of the NGOs who want Papua to separate from Indonesia come from Australia." Revelations of the Guterres plan have emerged with the announcement that Papua’s new police chief will be General Timbul Silaen, who was East Timor’s police chief when militias and security forces killed hundreds of pro-independence East Timorese.
| Wotta coincidence! Who'da ever expected something like that? |
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