Making Them Indonesians: Child Transfers out of East Timor

257 Pages·2012·2.95 MB·English

by  Helene van Klinken

Making Them Indonesians
Child Transfers out of East Timor
Helene van Klinken
Copyright and imprint information
© Copyright 2012 Helene van Klinken
The author has made every reasonable effort to locate, contact and acknowledge
copyright owners. Any copyright owners who are not properly identified and
acknowledged should contact the publisher.
All rights reserved. Apart from any uses permitted by Australia’s Copyright Act
1968, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without prior
written permission from the copyright owners. Inquiries should be directed to
the publisher.
Monash University Publishing
Building 4, Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
www.publishing.monash.edu
The Monash Asia Series of the Monash Asia Institute replaces Monash
University’s MAI Press imprint. The Monash Asia Series Editorial Board, of the
Monash Asia Institute, is chaired by Professor Marika Vicziany.
Monash University Publishing brings to the world publications which advance
the best traditions of humane and enlightened thought.
Monash University Publishing titles pass through a rigorous process of
independent peer review.
www.publishing.monash.edu/books/mti.html
Design: Les Thomas
Cover image: © Knl oZrzy&ySdosdl adqy. –??. East Timorese children at the home
of the Suhartos, 3 September 1977.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Author: Klinken, Helene van.
Title: Making them Indonesians : child transfers out of Indonesia.
ISBN: 9781876924805 (pb)
ISBN: 9781876924799 (web)
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Forced migration--Timor-Leste; Children and war--Timor-Leste;
Children and war--Indonesia; Timor-Leste--History--20th century; Timor-
Leste--Politics and government--20th century; Indonesia--Politics and
government--20th century.
Foreword
This book tells the story of thousands of East Timorese children who were
transferred to Indonesia between 1975 and 1999. A lot is written about the
suffering of our people during the war and conflict – the displacement, hunger,
detention, torture, rape, disappearances, killings. But this story of the transfer of
vulnerable children out of East Timor is almost unknown. The children were
raised and educated in Indonesia, losing their East Timorese culture and
sometimes even the ability to communicate with their own parents and families.
Many now live and work in Indonesia and have their own families there. Those
who took the children often did so with the best of intentions, but their
paternalistic attitudes, including taking many children against the wishes of
parents and families, meant that there was little understanding of the personal
suffering and the pain that separation causes.
Since the vote for independence in 1999, a number of East Timorese parents
have asked me and/or the Alola Foundation of which I am Chair, for help in
tracing their missing children in Indonesia. The Alola Foundation, named after
a child taken as a war trophy to Indonesia in 1999, has assisted families in their
search, and in several instances we have been successful. My husband, Prime
Minister Xanana Gusmão, also supports efforts to reunite children taken to
Indonesia with their families in East Timor.
This book describes and analyses the child transfers out of East Timor and
helps us better to understand why they occurred. The stories here represent the
experiences of many East Timorese children and parents, and the book helps to
draw public attention to their stories.
There are still many East Timorese living in Indonesia who were taken there as
young children. There are also many families and elderly parents in East Timor
who long to meet their missing children. I hope that this book, besides giving us
a clearer understanding of the transfers, will also help East Timorese who were
taken to Indonesia as children to realise that they are not alone in their
experience. I hope that they will try to search for their families, and that those
who took the children to Indonesia will assist them in their search.
HdqyExbdkkdmbwyMr.yKhqrswySv nqcyGtrl ãn
Goodwill Ambassador for Education, Timor-Leste
Chair National Commission, UNESCO Timor-Leste
Chair of the Alola Foundation
--
Cite this chapter as: Sword Gusmão, Kirsty. 2011. 'Foreword'. In MZjhmf
Tgdl yImcnmdrhZmr yCghkcyTqZmredqryntsyneyEZrsyThl nq by van Klinken, Helene.
Melbourne: Monash University Publishing. Page v.
© Copyright 2011
All rights reserved. Apart from any uses permitted by Australia’s Copyright
Act 1968, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without prior
written permission from the copyright owners. Inquiries should be directed to
the publisher, Monash University Publishing. Building 4, Monash University,
Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. www.publishing.monash.edu.
The fact that this book is published online does YZd mean it is in the public
domain.
Contents
Making Them Indonesians:
Child Transfers out of East Timor
Copyright and imprint information iv
Foreword v
Preface ix
Maps xii
Biliki’s story xiv
Introduction xix
Ch 1. The New Order in East Timor 1
Leonia’s story 20
Ch 2. Transfer for adoption 25
Petrus Kanisius’s story 66
Ch 3. Transfers by institutions linked to the state 74
Iqbal Menezes’s story 105
Ch 4. Transfers by religious institutions 109
Zacarias Pereira’s story 139
Ch 5. Separations after the referendum 143
Conclusion 172
Appendix I. Dharmais Foundation child transfers to Java 178
Appendix II. Interviews 180
Appendix III. Biographical information 184
Appendix IV. Chronology 186
Glossary 187
Bibliography 191
Index 205
Istóriaku 213
Preface
My decision to write about child transfers out of East Timor was influenced by
my interest in the ‘stolen generation’ of Australian Aboriginal children. During
my childhood I heard many stories from my mother and her friends about
Aboriginal children living in institutions in Australia. However, it took many
years before we understood why the children were placed in these institutions.
I first heard stories about children smuggled out of East Timor by soldiers
when I was working in Indonesia from 2000 to 2002. This was already after the
fall of the New Order regime. More political freedom in Indonesia meant that
East Timorese dared to tell their stories. In 2003 I had the opportunity to
volunteer at the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East
Timor, CAVR. There I began to realise the systematic nature of the transfer of
young East Timorese children to Indonesia and to formulate the ideas which led
to a PhD thesis and now this book.
There is little awareness of the fact and scale of the transfer of young,
dependent East Timorese children to Indonesia. I was struck by the parallels
with the removal of Aboriginal children from their families in Australia, a
practice which only ceased at the end of the 1960s. If such transfers could
continue for so long in Australia, I realised that under the repressive and
censored Indonesian New Order regime, from 1965 till the fall of Suharto in
1998, the transfer of young children out of East Timor could also take place
unchallenged. As I researched, gradually a picture emerged. I found the power
holders in East Timor and Australia transferred children out of similar – though
not identical – political and ideological aims. The Australian authorities wanted
to assimilate the Aboriginal children into the dominant, white, Christian society;
the aim of the Indonesians was similarly to integrate the East Timorese children,
and make them Indonesians.
There was hardly any material written about these child transfers. I have
collected the stories from many oral sources. But finding informants was not
easy, as those involved have no organised contact with one another. Most of my
research took place between 2003 and 2004 in Indonesia and East Timor and I
am sincerely grateful to all the people who shared stories and information that
made the writing of this book possible. I interviewed 32 parents or relatives of
children taken to Indonesia, many of them still looking for their missing