Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor

Front matter

Lorez PE of

Douglas Kammen

THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY 0F GENOCIDE, Resoturion & HUMAN RIGHTS

Contents

Preface vii Note on Place Names, Personal Names, and Spelling xi

Glossary and Abbreviations xiii

Introduction: Situating Recurrent Mass Violence Contested Origins

Preface

T: project began soon after I moved to Dili in 2oorto teach at the newly established National University of East Timor. Before then my knowledge of East Timor was limited to a rather casual study of the Indonesian military units that had served in the occupied territory. Not knowing where to begin, I visited the cemeteries, the closest I could come to an archive. In the Santa Cruz cemetery, where Indonesian troops opened fire on a peaceful funeral procession in 1991, I was intrigued by a gravestone for three brothers who, the inscription told me, had been *murdered in Maubara” in September 1975. Knowing little about East Timor's history and nothing whatsoever about Maubara, I could not have imagined that this gravestone would lead three centuries back into Maubara's past and forward a quarter century to East Timor's independence and beyond. Nor could I have imagined that the village in which the three brothers were born and killed was also the home of an extraordinary nineteenth-century rebel leader; that the brothers' Timorese grandmother had been the mistress of the son of a brutal Portuguese governor; that their grandfather was deported from Portugal for pro-Republican activities; that one of their cousins was a member of the Fretilin Central Committee in 1975; that the great-great nephew of the nineteenth-century rebel leader was the district administrator and pro-Jakarta militia organizer in 1999; or that the first man murdered by the pro-Jakarta militia in early 1999 was a direct descendant of the ruler of Maubara in 1726. My apparently innocent question about who killed three boys in 1975 led from hamlet to hamlet, from Maubara to Dili, from there to Portugal and Holland, from slaves brought from the Dutch-held island of Alor to the governor of Portuguese Timor, from failed decolonization in 1975 to the Serious Crimes Unit tasked with investigating human viii PREFACE rights abuses after 1999, and from subsistence peasants to independent East Timor's new elite.

A project of this sort would not have been possible without the assistance, input, and encouragement of a great many people. People in Maubara and elsewhere in East Timor patiently listened to my questions and told me what they knew, thought they knew, or wanted me to know. In Maubara I am particularly grateful to Felix da Costa, Mau Dua, José Maucabae, José Lino dos Reis, Miguel Sanches, José Serra, Lourindo dos Reis da Silva, and Fortunato Soares. Iam deeply indebted to Martinho and Julião (of the sacred hair), who served as guides on adventures through the forests and kept me company on chilly nights camping on the mountaintop. In Dili, I learned an enormous amount from my colleagues and students at the National University of East Timor. My colleague Abel dos Santos, who is from Maubara, first introduced me to the area and for more than a decade has been a source of information, contacts, and friendship. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement of a number of friends: Emma Coupland, Alex Grainger, Janet Gunter, Selma Hayati, Nugroho Katjasungkana, the irascible Ernesto Lemos, Cesar Melito Martins, Michael Montesano, Ong Yanchun, Charlie Scheiner, Tomé Jeronimo de Sousa, Jill Steinberg, and Titi Supardi. Afonso Lai, Rui Pina, and Andre de Sousa all graciously provided information and allowed me to reproduce family photographs.

Unless otherwise noted, all interviews cited in this work were conducted by the author. Many of these were casual conversations, though in some cases a tape recorder was used and transcripts were made later. In a few cases Abel dos Santos assisted with translations from the Tokodede language. Interviews are cited by date and place (by hamlet, village, and subdistrict).

Archival material for this book was obtained from a number of sources. I would like to thank Marie McCloud and her staff at the Arquivo Histórico Macau for their assistance during two visits. The staff at the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon kindly assisted with documents as well. Henk Schulte Nordholt made it possible to spend two wonderful months in Leiden at KITLV, where additional material was obtained while I was supposed to be working on another project. Hans Hàgerdal generously shared his archival notes on Maubara and, unbeknownst to him, provided the impetus for actually completing the manuscript. Nandini Chaturvedula

PREFACE ix assisted with translations of a number of nineteenth-century Portuguese documents. Jan van der Putten kindly translated the Dutch letter of 1759 renewing Maubara's allegiance to the VOC. Mrs. Lee Li Keng kindly produced the maps.

The family trees in the appendix were compiled from both oral interviews and written sources. Due to the need to fit each family on a single page, the individuals listed and information provided represent only part of what is known. The sources, too numerous to cite without overwhelming the presentation, have been omitted, but most can be found in the endnotes to the main text.

A number of people provided feedback on parts or all of the manuscript. Judith Bovensiepen, who loves a good mystery, has been my favorite critic throughout. Hilmar Farid helped me to think about how to write both against and for a nationalist historiography. Jamie Davidson did his best to keep me from taking on other commitments, sound advice that I foolishly ignored. My parents, Carol and Michael Kammen, read drafts of the manuscript and suggested a host of comparative references, only some of which have made it into the current volume. My wife has patiently put up with this project for far too long, for which I am extremely grateful, and my son happily knows nothing whatsoever about it.

NOTE ON PLACE NAMES, PERSONAL NAMES, AND SPELLING

What place names signify in East Timor has changed significantly over time. For the eighteenth century, place names typically referred to polities (what the Portuguese called “kingdoms” and the Dutch East India Company called negery or rijken) or subpolities (which the Europeans assumed to be “vassals” of the kingdoms). In the nineteenth-century archival record, smaller settlements appear, usually referred to by the Portuguese as povoação or aldeia, which are translated in this work as hamlets. In 1903, the Portuguese established two “jurisdictions” below the kingdom (Guguleur and Maubara Tassi), under which there were newly created village administrative units (suco) and numerous hamlets (aldeia). The Indonesian regime directly adopted the Portuguese administrative units, with the former kingdoms and Portuguese administrative posto becoming subdistricts (kecamatan), the suco becoming Indonesian-style desa, and the aldeia becoming dusun.

The spelling of place names has varied over time. The capital city thus appears as Dili, Dilly, Timor-Dilly, and now again simply Dili. I have used the standard Dili, except in quotations from primary sources. Although by no means uniform during any given period, the names of the kingdom/ subdistrict and the seven village-level units that eventually emerged are spelled variously.

Personal names are equally complicated. The people of Maubara have names from the Tokodede language. As in a number of other languages spoken in East Timor, Mau signifies a male, Bui a female. Beginning in the early eighteenth century, leading figures in Maubara adopted or were given Portuguese names, and in the late nineteenth century, when a Catholic priest first became a full-time resident in Maubara, the use of Portuguese names xii NOTE ON NAMES AND SPELLING

(given at the time of baptism) slowly became more common. Many people were given the surname of a godfather (often the local priest or a patron), so one cannot assume that individuals with the same last name are in fact related. It is also the case that children often do not have the same surname as their parents or their siblings. Finally, prominent individuals could be referred to by their Tokodede name, a rank or title, as well as a Portuguese name, often creating confusion and at times some uncertainty. Archival sources commonly spell personal names in ways that differ from current spelling, so every effort has been made to indicate where names that are spelled differently in fact refer to the same individual.

Terms listed in the glossary are identified by language: T. = Tetum; M. = Malay; D. = Dutch; P. = Portuguese; I. = Indonesian. Some terms, such as rei de pomali, involve combinations of Tetum and Portuguese words.

The various names by which East Timor has been known present a final problem: in the nineteenth century the Portuguese colonial possession was known as Timor Portugués (Portuguese Timor); when Fretilin declared independence in November 1975, they named their state Repüblica Democrática de Timor-Leste (Democratic Republic of East Timor); in 1976, when Indonesia annexed the territory, the province was called Timor Timur (East Timor); and when independence was restored in 2002, the official name reverted to Repüblica Democrática de Timor-Leste, and in conversation is simply called Timor-Leste. Throughout the book I employ the name appropriate at the time, though in places (particularly the introduction) the generic term East Timor is used.

Throughout this book I have standardized spellings, while remaining as faithful as possible to the preference of the individual and the integrity of the sources. Portuguese accents are used throughout, regardless of whether they appear in the original source or are used by living individuals in daily practice.

GLOSSARY AND ABBREVIATIONS

AHM AHU aldeia (P.)

Apodeti

ASDT avo (T.) BMP (1.)

BODAT

BOGPMT

BPMT callades (M., P.)

CAVR chefe (P.)

CNRT dato (T.) deportado (P.)

Arquivo Histórico Macau (Historical Archive of Macau) Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Historical Archive of the Overseas)

hamlet

Assosiação Popular Democrática Timorense (Timorese Popular Democratic Association), established 27 May 1975

Assosiação Social Democrática Timor (Timor Social Democratic Association), established 20 May 1975 grandparent

Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron militia), in Liquica district

Boletim Official do Districto Autonomo de Timor (colonial gazette)

Boletim Official do Governo da Provincia de Macau e Timor (colonial gazette)

Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor (colonial gazette) Portuguese term for mountain-dwellers, referring to a type of tuber (keladi), which was a staple food Commissão Acolhemente, Veridade e Reconciliação (East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation)

chief, headman; chefe de suco is a village head Conselho Nacional de Resistência Timorense (National Council of Timorese Resistance)

prince, noble

deportee xiv GLOSSARY AND ABBREVIATIONS desa (1.) village

Dom (P.) Lord, Sir

Dona (P.) Lady

Estado Novo (P.)

Falintil (P.)

finta (P.)

Fretilin

Hakka ikat (M., T.) Interfet

Kopassus (I1.)

Larantuqueiro lia nain (T.) lisan (T.)

liurai (T.)

lulik (T.)

malae (T.) mardijker (M.) morador(es) (P.) mortel (T.) PIDE pomali (T.) posto (P.) povoacão (P.) presidio (P.) principal (P.)

New State; name of the quasi-fascist Salazar regime in Portugal

Forças Armadas de Libertação de Timor-Leste (Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor) annual tribute

Frente Revolucionária do Timor-Leste Independente (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor), established 20 May 1974

dialect group from China

double-woven cloth

International Force for East Timor

Komando Pasukan Khusus (Special Forces Command, in Indonesian Army)

Portuguese term for the mestizo and Catholicized community that developed around the Portuguese base on Solor and Larantuca, and later Lifau; referred to by the Dutch as “black Portuguese”

ritual speaker

tradition, custom

lit. lord of the land; indigenous ruler

taboo, sacred

foreigner, usually referring to Europeans

freeman

second-line military force

glass or coral beads

Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (International and State Defense Police), part of the Salazar- Caetano regime

taboo, sacred

subdistrict administrative unit

settlement, hamlet

fort member of the ruling or royal family; noble

GLOSSARY AND ABBREVIATIONS xv rainha (P.)

régulo (P.)

rei (P.)

rei de pomali (P.-T.)

reino (P.)

Sao (P.) SAPT

SCU

suco (T.) tomonggong (M.) UDT uma lisan (T.) uma lulik (T.)

UNTAET

VOC (D.)

queen

“little king”; ruler

king

ritual leader

kingdom, polity; in Tetum, also used to refer to the populace or subjects of a kingdom

saint, abbreviation in name of ships

Sociedade Agrícola Pátria e Trabalho (Agricultural Society of the Fatherland)

Serious Crimes Unit, established by the United Nations village-level administrative unit

lower-level aristocrat; rendered tumungão in Portuguese União Democrática de Timorense (Timorese Democratic Union), established 11 May 1975

house, representing an extended lineage

sacred house

United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor

Vereenigde Oost-Indisch Compagnie (Dutch East India Company)