Timor/Ireland: A reluctant hero Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign SOURCE; "REALITY," JULY/AUGUST 2000. A RELUCANT HERO One man who has done more than any other in recent years to raise awareness about the situation in East Timor has been former Dublin bus-driver, Tom Hyland. John Scally spoke to a man who is a hero of our times. When Tom Hyland received one of the People of the Year awards, he did so with some embarrasement. Glory and fame are not his idols but although disconcerted by all the fuss, he saw it as an opportunity to again spread the message about East Timor. In many ways Tom Hyland is like an old-style missionary priest. With him the cause is everything, and no oportunity for evangelisation can be squandered. His zeal and conviction are awe-inspiring. Yet it could have been so different. It all started one night at home in Ballyfermot when a few friends were invited to play cards. Reluctantly, Tom had agreed to let a neighbour, whose cable had been disconnected, watch a programme on his TV but on strict condition that the sound be turned down so as not to disturb the card players. The neighbours wanted to watch the ITV First Tuesday documentary on the situation in East Timor. Despite the low sound, Hyland's attention was diverted from his cards when he recognised the voice of Olivia O'Leary. Her next sentence changed his life: "Finally and fully revealed to the ourside world, 16 years of continous atrocity." The card game was forgotten as Hyland and his friends watched the programme with ever-increasing horror. After the closing credits, a number came on the screen promising further information. That night Hyland gathered up as many fifty pence pieces as he could, headed for the public phone box down the road, and rang the number in England. At first the woman with a marked English accent couldn't make out Hyland's quick fire Dublin brogue. Eventually, though, he got his message across. LITTLE INTEREST Up until then, Hyland had taken little interest in political matters. The second youngest of five children, he has lived in Ballyfermot all his life. He worked as a bus driver though with typical self-depreciation, claims that he wasn't a great one. He took voluntary redundance from CIE. Shortly after the promgramme on East Timor, Hyland trekked all over Dublin looking for a company or business to donate a typewriter. Finally he was successful and the East Timor Campaign was born. "I knew I was in for a long haul and I was determined that once I took on the cause I would not let people down." Hyland has visited East Timor a number of times usually illegally and at considerbale risk to his own personal safety. "I think my first time was in 1996 with David Shanks of the Irish Times. The first thing I remember about the visit was that both of us changed our passports from the English to the Gaelic versions of our names because I would have been known, and I think David already had been refused a visa." "The first thing I noticed when we got into East Timor was that nobody smiled at all. There was this sort of pain on people's faces as if they had a burden they carried with them. The second thing was the extreme militarisation of the country. Everywhere we went, not only did we see uniformed soldiers, but we were followed by Indonesian plain clothes secret police. We really could only speak to the ordinary people out of public view. I think their experiences was that if they did come and speak to foreigners, they could be interrogated afterwards. It was through church sources that we got to hear people's testimonies of what was really going on." SHOCKING TESTIMONIES The testimonies that Hyland listened to were shocking, almost beyond belief. "Everyone we met had lost somebody. Probably the sexual abuse and the violence inflicted on women in East Timor was what really stood out. We were told that there was a time shortly after the invasion when the Indonesian military rounded up and sexualy abused them, and that when the nuns got access to them, many of them wer pregnant, had cigerette burns on their bodies and breasts, and many others had been taken to a cliff top, stabbed, and then thrown off the cliff while still alive." In the absence of any social services, it was left to the church to pick up the pieces. "All the victims of abuse at the hands of the Indonesian military want to tell their stories to the priests and nuns. In fact, I once witnessed a man coming into the bishop's house and telling him that his only son had been murdered-and it's quite disturbing when you're a witness to this. The church could only help people during the hours of darkness because any assistance could only be offered covertly. Anybody seen to be trying to repair the damage would not tolerated." BROUGHT TO IRELAND Hyland has brought two young East Timorese men to live in Ireland and hopes others will follow. "Sometimes you are asked what you've achieved or can you measure your success, and it's very difficult in the field of human rights; there are really no barometers that allow you to measure your success. I'd like to think, though that one of our successes was opportunity to some East Timorese to come to Ireland. I feel that I have learned more from Dino and Jose than they have from me and our society. Despite all the suffering they have undergone, they kept their dignity and had respect for themselves as a people and I know I've learned a lot from these people about tolerance and respect for other people and cultures. "Dino lost his father who was executed by the Indonesian military and his young brother. He brother was only four months old but the soldiers took him from his mother and shot him, and Dino witnessed it. Jose is from a village in the central mountains where I was once arrested, but got out it by continually talking blah-blah. There were 10 children but four of his brothes and three of his sisters were executed by the military." MORE DOWNS THAN UPS There have been more downs than up along the way. Last August the world was swept away on a tidal wave of optimism in the wake of the over whemling vote for indepdence in East Timor. As August gave way to September, the world watched in horror as thousands of East Timorese were murdered by the Indonesian army and their hired militia thugs. "At the worst of it, I got a phone call at one in the morning and the voice said: 'Tom, only pigs and dogs are left.' I asked him what. He said, There's nobody left in the towns or the villages. Everybody is gone and only pigs and dogs are left.' "I knew then that they had been shipped to West Timor or had fled to the mountains. I remember literally rolling into a ball on the bed and sobbing. That was the worst moment for me." ENRICHING EXPERIENCE Hyland feels that he has been greatly enriched by his contact with East Timor. "I thing we have a lot to learn, and not just from the East Timorese people, but indigenous people all over the world. I've been involved in this issue now for a number of years, and the one thing that has always struck me about them is their ability to share what little they have, whereas I think in the West we tend to push the burden onto certain sectors rather than take collective responsibilty." Now a well known name in Ireland, Hyland also has a huge reputation internationally. He is perceived as a prominent figure in Portugal and has appeared on Portuguese television regularly. One of his biggest admirers is the Portuguese foreign Minister, Jaime Gama, who has very moved when arriving on a cold wintry night to see a visible freezing Hyland outside Dublin Castle, armed with a banner and a flask, demanding rights for the East Timorese. Portugal has a particular interest in East Timor as it is one of its former colonies. Over the years Hyland has broadened his political interests to take in other countries, like Burma and Tibet. Not surprisingly, the populations of both countries experience oppression to that of East Timor. When I met he was waxing lyrical about a book on the philosophy of the Native Americans. When he is ready to pass on the East Timor baton, it is inevitable that he will champion a new cause. For the moment, though, he is relishing the prospects for a new millennium in East Timor. "I think East Timor has a bright future ahead of it. When the banks, the IMF, the World Bank, and all these great institutions go into the country, they go in to examine economic viability and the East Timorese are not really into this. The greatest resource East Timor has is its people. They are extremely courageous and resilient people. East Timor is pretty much burned to the ground but they will build it up again." ENDS. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-07.14.00-10:53:39-20005