What really happpened in Kraras? Tamalia Alisjahbana   ;   The writer was formerly a journalist with the BBC World Service

                                                JAKARTA POST,  21 Januari 2014

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

An article by Aboeprijadi Santoso in the Dec. 20, 2013 edition of The Jakarta Post suggests that former Army’s Special Forces (Koppasus) commander Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto was responsible for the killing of an East Timorese leader whom he had invited to meet him unarmed, as well as being responsible for the massacres of Kraras.  I do not like to talk about Kraras. It is a black page in our history but perhaps it is finally time to talk about what happened back then.  My mother was German and that means one always has a residual feeling of guilt.  When Adolf Hitler was in power, my mother was in high school. She was not a Nazi and did not participate in the killings in the concentration camps but as a child I remember hearing my parents say that a people must take communal responsibility for what their government does.  I found it very hard to accept that my mother had to take some measure of responsibility for what the German authorities had done during the war.  I once asked journalist Mochtar Lubis: “If a person’s country does something terrible that they do not agree with, then what must they do as a citizen so as not to have to bear a communal responsibility for their country’s actions?” He replied: “I can only answer that question for myself. For me, it meant having to go to prison and giving up my newspaper but each person must decide the answer for themselves.”   At the end of 1995, my siblings and I were passionately discussing a book about East Timor and our communal responsibility. My brother commented that at the very least we all bore a civil responsibility to try to find out what was really happening there. The book mentioned Prabowo’s involvement in human rights abuses. Later, I also heard stories accusing him of inviting a Timorese guerrilla leader to come down from the mountains and meet him unarmed to negotiate and then having him shot, and also that he was responsible for the massacres of Kraras. I had known Prabowo since he was young and I found these accusations very hard to reconcile with the person I knew. I once received a letter from him when he was still a cadet where he wrote: “Oh Tamalia, I want so much to do good and to be good.  “I have had so many privileges growing up that now I feel that I must give back to my country.  “That is why I have joined the military because through the military I can struggle for power and with power one can do great good.” That was the Prabowo I knew — had he truly changed so much?  I had not met Prabowo in 20 years but I remembered my brother’s words so I went to Cipinang prison and visited political prisoners every week.  I had not realized that East Timor (now Timor Leste) leader Xanana Gusmao was one of them but slowly I came to know him as well as a host of others. In 1998, the Soeharto government fell and journalists throughout the world descended on the capital because as Frank Langfitt told me, “All the world loves the story of a people overthrowing a bad, old dictator.”  Frank was with The Baltimore Sun and I was his fixer and interpreter. We went everywhere there was action but after Soeharto stepped down Frank said his editor wanted him to go to the provinces to see how people were reacting to the fall of Soeharto. I suggested him to go to East Timor. We went to the prison and Xanana gave us contacts to meet in East Timor before we headed off. After contacting all the people on Xanana’s list I asked Frank that we do something I wanted. “I want to find a woman called Sister Marlene to ask her a question that people say she knows the answer to.” We found her and I asked about the killing of the Timorese leader and the massacres of Kraras. A courageous woman who looked after orphans, she told me: “Yes, Prabowo did both those things.” But she said she had not witnessed these events but only heard about them from others. “If you want to speak to someone who was there at the time and who was involved and who knows, then speak to Father Locatelli.” So we searched until we found the priest called Father Locatelli and he told us: “It is true that Prabowo contacted a Timorese leader in the mountains to meet him unarmed to negotiate and that he was shot when he did so. I was the go between and took the messages but Prabowo was not responsible for that man being shot. You must remember that at that time he was still very low in rank and many people did not like what he was trying to do. I tried to warn him but he would not believe me and later when the man was killed he was beside himself with anguish. He wrote me a 12-page letter.” “But what about Kraras? Was he responsible for the massacres of Kraras?” Father Locatelli looked surprised. “No, he had nothing to do with them. He was miles away in the mountains at that time.” Later, I learned that when Prabowo finally did come down from the mountains he managed to save some of the people of Kraras who were still being held and that they then held a special traditional ceremony to thank him.  After which the Village of Widows was created.  We all bear a communal responsibility for what happened in Kraras but perhaps Mr. Santoso, Prabowo’s responsibility is less than yours or mine.  Perhaps the villagers he managed to save have released him from such a responsibility. ●