wfn.org | Pastor Entangled in East Timor Violence Escapes Death

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

7-September-1999 
99296 
 
    Pastor Entangled in East Timor Violence 
    Escapes Death But Loses Most Everything Else 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
DILI, East Timor - One sunny morning in April, Leonito da Costa was walking 
to Gethsemane Church in Liquica with his daughters - Julinia, 9, and 
Pasquala, 5. Julinia was carrying her 1-year-old sister, Abelina. 
 
    Some say it is a farmer's misfortune to have only daughters, but da 
Costa wasn't complaining. He was by nature a joyful man, and had been 
greatly blessed. His life on this small island was everything he had wanted 
it to be. 
 
    Da Costa's body was small - he weighed barely 125 pounds, and his 
lightness of heart was such that he sometimes seemed to walk on air - but 
he had a surprising capacity for work. When he smiled at one of his 
daughters, he looked much younger than his 35 years. 
 
    He had, in the nearby village of Potubo, the village of his parents, a 
house with wooden walls and a tin roof and tile floors, a home that he had 
built with his own hands. 
 
    He had a loving wife of 10 years, Leonarda, who helped run a small 
business in the front room, selling "necessities" to their neighbors. 
 
    He was pastor ("evangelist") of a village church, Bethel Christian, 
which had a growing membership of 185 people in 48 families. 
 
    He was one of the leaders of a busy farming collective that then had 25 
goats, a milk cow, two fattening calves and ripening crops of vegetables 
and cassava. 
 
    Then came a great sorrow. 
 
    Without warning a large stone struck da Costa on the side of the head. 
He was stunned, and confused. Then a rifle butt smashed into the back of 
his neck, and he closed his deep brown eyes. 
 
    While he was knocked out, anti-independence militiamen armed with axes 
and machetes attacked a chaotic crowd of hundreds of refugees, including 
large numbers of women and children, that the "guerrillas" had herded into 
the yard of the Catholic church in Liquica, where most of the residents are 
Catholic. (The Catholic church is generally regarded as pro-independence. 
Ironically, Protestant churches like da Costa's are usually considered 
pro-autonomy.) Da Costa contends that only "about five people" in the whole 
crowd were politically active. 
 
    He thinks it a blessing that he was not conscious to witness the 
slaughter of at least 60 people in that killing field. The actual toll may 
have been much higher, for many residents of the Liquica district 
"disappeared" that day, never to be seen again. The surviving villagers 
believe many bodies probably were taken out to sea and dumped. It troubles 
da Costa that these victims weren't given proper Christian burials. 
 
    He says the slaughtering force was led by fighters of the Besi-Mera 
Putih (BMP), reputed to be the most brutal and merciless of the 
anti-independence militias. Behind the BMP marched a group of Indonesian 
soldiers. These civilian and uniformed killers waded fiercely into the 
cowering crowd, slashing indiscriminately, until dozens of people were 
fallen and bleeding and begging for their lives. 
 
    Mercifully, da Costa did not have to witness this pitiful scene. He 
regained consciousness many hours later, and found that he was in a police 
station, one of about 20 people sheltered there. For three days, he did not 
know what had become of his children. (They had survived and found their 
way to their mother, who had been waiting in Gethsemane church.) Early one 
morning, a group of soldiers came into the jail "to kill all the rest," da 
Costa says, but a police officer who happened also to be an elder in his 
church came to rescue, muscling him away from the marauders. He and three 
others were the only survivors of those 20 refugees; the other 16 
disappeared. 
 
    Eventually officials of the Synod of the Council of Churches of East 
Timor (GKTT) arranged for da Costa to be taken to the relative safety of 
Dili. 
 
    While he was stranded in the police station, militiamen went to his 
village and burned his home, Bethel Church and all other houses to the 
ground; stole or killed all the livestock; and destroyed the crops. Da 
Costa's wife and daughters escaped with the clothes on their backs. 
 
    Today there is no more Potubo. The (Indonesian) government won't permit 
the family to move back to the area and start rebuilding. 
 
    Now da Costa's wife and children, his two brothers' families, his 
parents and his wife's parents all live as refugees in a tent city in the 
bush, while he lives as a refugee in hiding in the capital. He hasn't seen 
his wife or children or others of his family since April, but he has 
learned that they are alive, and relatively safe. 
 
    He says he is very happy today because he "has died and has experienced 
the resurrection." He says his faith is very strong. 
 
    When he imagines the future, he says, he thinks about rebuilding his 
house and reuniting his family and recreating his village and 
reconstructing his church and organizing a farming cooperative as 
successful as the one he has lost - dreams, in short, of getting his old 
life back. But he says he can't allow himself to think it too much because 
he knows it's a long shot as long as the political situation in East Timor 
remains volatile. 
 
    Da Costa says he has counted more than 300 people - in just the area of 
his village and within the reach of his congregation - who have died by 
murder, starvation and disease related to the continuing violence in East 
Timor. He says he writes their names in a book so that they will not be 
forgotten. 
 
    Da Costa works now as a caretaker around the Synod office. He continues 
to draw his clergyman's salary of 50,000 rupiah per month - a little more 
than $6.50.  Each month he keeps 30,000 rupiah to meet his living expenses 
and sends 20,000 to Leonarda, for whom his heart aches every day. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by Office of News Services, 
  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
  to the World Faith News list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  For additional information about this news story,
  call 502-569-5493 or send e-mail to PCUSA.News@pcusa.org

  On the web:  http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/

  If you have a question about this mailing list, 
  send queries to wfn@wfn.org