East Timorese children taken to Indonesia for indoctrination

SYDNEY, OCT 25: At least 130 East Timorese children have been taken from their parents in refugee camps in West Timor and sent to Java for...

SYDNEY, OCT 25: At least 130 East Timorese children have been taken from their parents in refugee camps in West Timor and sent to Java for indoctrination in the cause of reversing independence, reports said here on Wednesday. The Sydney Morning Herald said it had found the children living in primitive orphanages in Central Java under the supervision of Catholic nuns and volunteers who struggle to feed and clothe them.

Citing humanitarian investigators and other sources, the Herald and The Age of Melbourne said the children had been taken to be indoctrinated as political activists by pro-Jakarta Timorese who refused to accept East Timor’s independence.

The children, many deeply traumatised, had been told they would not be able to return to their parents for three years, and even then would have to return to Java to continue their education.

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Aged between six and 17, the children were said to be among the 1,000 who had been separated from their parents at the height of last year’s militia rampage in East Timor and subsequently taken from refugee camps in West Timor.

Many of the others were feared to have been made to work in factory sweat shops, plantations or forced into prostitution. In one orphanage, 57 boys live in one room under a leaking roof while 28 girls were packed into three rooms of a tiny house. Only four toilets and several cooking pots were provided for the 80 children.

Those involved were closely linked to the militia responsible for the violence in East Timor and the intimidation which has prevented more than 100,000 East Timorese returning home, the papers said. One was said to be Octavio Soares, a nephew of the former pro-integrationist governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares, who is facing charges over the destruction and violence last September. A source close to Octavio Soares was quoted as saying: "There is a plan for East Timor to come back to Indonesia even if it takes 20 years or more. "The plan is to use these children to help their cause."

UN officials and humanitarian workers said parents in West Timor were persuaded their children would receive a better education in Central Java and agreed for them to leave at a time of chaos, trauma and fear for the future. The children, weeping and distressed, were left without prior arrangements with Catholic church officials in the Central Java city of Semarang in November and on Christmas Eve last year after being taken by ferry from West Timor.