Timor children 'brainwashed'

The children were taken from refugee camps

At least 130 East Timorese children have been taken from their parents in refugee camps to be trained in Java as anti-independence activists, according to reports.

The Sydney Morning Herald said it had found the children in primitive orphanages under the supervision of nuns, who were struggling to feed them.

Those involved are said to have links to the militias

Some of them were ill and many deeply traumatised after being separated from their parents in the refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor.

The Herald quoted humanitarian investigators and other sources saying they children had been taken for indoctrination by pro-Indonesian Timorese, who refuse to accept last year's vote for independence in East Timor.

The children, aged six to 17, are thought to be among up to 1,000 children removed from the refugee camps.

Many of the others are feared to have been forced to work in factory sweatshops or as prostitutes.

The Herald said the children sent to the orphanages near Semarang, in Central Java, had been told they would not be able to return to their parents for three years.

Militias

In one orphanage, 57 boys were found living in one room under a leaking roof, while 28 girls were packed into three rooms of a tiny house. Only four toilets and a few cooking pots were provided.

The men who sent them were said to be closely linked to the pro-Jakarta militias behind last year's violence in East Timor.

Thousands fled during militia violence

One of them was said to be Octavio Soares, nephew of East Timor's former pro-integrationist governor Abilio Soares.

"There is a plan for East Timor to come back to Indonesia even if it takes 20 years or more," a source close to him was quoted saying.

"The plan is to use these children to help their cause."

Mr Soares was quoted saying he had only arranged for the children to be sent to Java for their education.

But Paulus Mudjiran of the Semarang Catholic Bishop's office said they were "quite aware that others may have plans for the children".

"In order to minimise any political manipulation we try to minimise contact between those who brought them and the children," he added.