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Imprisonment (Arbitrary Arrest and Detention)
In East Timor, the Indonesian security forces were found to have "committed, encouraged and condoned widespread and systematic arbitrary arrest and detention."1 Tens of thousands of East Timorese were detained arbitrarily over the course of the occupation. The Indonesian authorities arrested people in every district, although the highest numbers of detentions occurred in the capital of Dili, which had the largest state prisons and the main interrogation centres2.
According to the CAVR, examples of the conditions in which detainees were commonly held include:3
- Providing food but making it inedible, for example by dropping it on the floor, mixing it with broken glass or other sharp objects or cat faeces, or giving prisoners food that was burned or rotten.
- Stripping the victim of their clothes, leaving them naked or in only their underwear. Sometimes this was done before interrogation but in some places it was the practice for all detainees to be kept in this condition.
- Placing detainees in solitary confinement, sometimes for up to a year.
- Placing victims in cells known as "dark cells", in which there was no light and extremely poor ventilation. All detention centres, including prisons, police stations and military commands, had dark cells.
- Extremely poor sanitary conditions, including providing no toilet so that detainees were sitting in their own or each others' excrement, or providing only a small toilet for a large group of people.
- Restricting detainees' access to activities while in detention. Permission to play sports, read books or papers and other forms of leisure activity was routinely denied. Some activities were forced on detainees, however, such as singing the Indonesian national anthem or honouring the Indonesian flag.
- Restricting access to legal advice or representation until the 1990s, and even then the access granted was limited.
It is interesting to see how some who criticised the US over Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo stay silent when it comes to the Indonesian military's record.
1 Chega! Executive Summary p 96.
2 Chega! Executive Summary p 97.
3 Chega! Executive Summary p 101.
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