Britain's arms sales a 'disgrace to humanity'

Student Scott Cunliffe was one of 120 volunteers from 18 different countries working with the United Nations accredited International Federation for East Timor (IFET) overseeing the referendum on independence, the registration of electors, campaigning and monitoring human rights abuses.

Scott, 25, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, worked in the country for a month and flew back to Darwin, Australia, on September 1, just before the results of the ballot were made public.

When nearly 80 per cent of those eligible to vote opted for independence from Indonesia, the country plunged into crisis, mass murder, violence and mob rule took over, thousands were driven from their homes and all foreign nationals were ordered out of the country.

Back home, Scott has criticised the UN for the way it handled the crisis.

He said: "The UN had ample warning of the massacre to come as far back as April.

"The Indonesian-backed militia had made clear what their plans were and had threatened a massacre called 'operation clean sweep'.

"The biggest mistake of the UN was to trust the Indonesian military to look after the security when there was enough evidence of Indonesian brutality.

"Before the referendum took place, the UN should have tried to demand peace keeping troops were in place.

"The militia had control over huge areas and were constantly threatening people. There were hundreds of killings between Christmas and August 30."

Scott said IFET along with other observer groups had written to the UN to warn about what was happening and he was now lobbying the British and the Indonesian Governments to push for the militia who have been carrying out the assaults and murders to be arrested. He also said he saw Hawk aircraft, some of which are made at Warton, near Preston, flying over the capital being used as scare tactics by the Indonesians.

He described the British Government's approval of sale of arms to Indonesia as a "disgrace to humanity".

Scott, a former pupil of Burnley's St Theodore's RC High School, said: "IFET has been asked to give evidence to the war crimes tribunal and I have names of the militia and reports of what went on.

"I felt I had a moral duty to go to East Timor. It was a natural progression for me, being interested in human rights issues and being concerned about what was happening in East Timor for a number of years.

"It was never going to be a free and fair democratic election because of the violence and murders that have taken place.

"The people of East Timor were very brave to vote for independence when they were being threatened constantly by the militia."

Scott told of one family whose home was invaded by militia just before the referendum, the wife ran away with their child, but the husband still had the courage to go and vote.

Other observers from IFET witnessed an attack on students and refugees by militia armed with knives and machetes which left a man in hospital with serious injuries. On the day Scott arrived in the capital Dili he was told of two murders that had been committed that day and just before he left militia armed with guns and knives were threatening the house where he was staying.

He also said he feared for the lives of the people who IFET had employed in Dili as translators, cooks and drivers, because they had been taken away from their homes and had not been heard of since the last IFET volunteers left on September 7.

But Scott, who wears a black cloth badge to remember the friends in East Timor who have died or who are missing, said he will be returning to the country.

He added: "I intend going back to Darwin, hopefully by the end of the month, to work with Timor Aid helping the refugees.

"The East Timorese feel a massive sense of betrayal by the UN." He hopes to be able to return to East Timor before he resumes his Indonesian studies at the University of London.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.