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{{Short description|Pro-Indonesian Militia in East Timor}}
{{distinguish|Mahdi}}
{{Infobox militant organization
| name             = Mahidi
| logo             = Mahidi Symbol.svg
| caption          = Mahidi t-shirt lettering
| native_name      =
| native_name_lang =
| other_name       =
| country          = [[East Timor]]
| leader           = {{ill|Câncio Lopes de Carvalho|de|Câncio de Carvalho}}
| foundation       = {{Start date|1998|12}}
| dates            = {{Start date|1999}}–{{End date|2000}}
| predecessor      =
| successor        =
| motives          = Prevention of East Timor's independence
| area             = [[East Timor]]
| headquarters     = [[Ainaro]], [[East Timor]]
| ideology         =
| position         = Right-wing
| crimes           = * [[Suai Church massacre]]
| attacks          = [[Scorched Earth Operation|Timor-Leste Scorched Earth campaign]]
| status           = Defunct
| size             =
| flag             =
| website          =
}}
The '''Mahidi''' ({{langx|id|Mati Hidup dengan Indonesia|lit=Live and Die with Indonesia}})<ref>{{cite book |last1=Damaledo |first1=Andrey |title=Divided Loyalties: Displacement, belonging and citizenship among East Timorese in West Timor |date=2018 |publisher=ANU Press |isbn=978-1-76046-237-6 |pages=133–134 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv75d8zm |accessdate=8 December 2019 |chapter=6 To separate is to sustain |jstor=j.ctv75d8zm.13 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv75d8zm.13 |language=en}}</ref> was a [[militia]] in [[East Timor]] loyal to [[Indonesia]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey |date=November 2001 |title=People's war: militias in East Timor and Indonesia |url=https://history.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/u184/robinson/gr_-_peoples_war_.pdf |journal=South East Asia Research |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=271–318 |doi=10.5367/000000001101297414 |jstor=23750274 |s2cid=29365341 |language=en}}</ref> Its origin is traced back to groups who lost lands and power for fighting the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] and those who collaborated with the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] during [[World War II]].<ref name="Scambary2019">{{cite book |last1=Scambary |first1=James |title=Conflict, Identity, and State Formation in East Timor 2000 – 2017 |date=2019 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |page=42 |isbn=9789004396791 |url={{GBurl|CzGbDwAAQBAJ}} |access-date=30 May 2022 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326152317/https://books.google.com/books?id=CzGbDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The militia was founded in December 1998<ref>{{cite book|last1=Soares|first1=Dionisio Babo|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jbjgr|title=Out of the Ashes|publisher=ANU Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-9751229-1-4|page=61|language=en|chapter=Political developments leading to the referendum|jstor=j.ctt2jbjgr.13 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jbjgr.13|accessdate=8 December 2019}}</ref> and its operations were centered around the Cassa area in the southern Ainaro district.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Tanter|first1=Richard|title=Bitter Flowers, Sweet Flowers: East Timor, Indonesia, and the World Community|last2=Selden|first2=Mark|last3=Shalom|first3=Stephen Rosskamm|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2001|isbn=0-7425-0968-0|location=Lanham, MD|pages=80}}</ref> The location is strategic since it is at the crossroads between [[Manufahi Municipality|Manufahi]], [[Ainaro]], and [[Cova Lima Municipality|Cova Lima]] districts.<ref name=":0" />  Mahidi participated in the [[1999 East Timorese crisis]], and the group was one of the most violent of the armed forces during the crisis. They were linked to the [[Suai Church massacre]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alley|first=Roderic|title=The Domestic Politics of International Relations: Cases from Australia, New Zealand and Oceania|date=2018-02-06|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-74698-4|language=en}}</ref> which led to around 200 deaths as well as other mass killings.
== History ==
The head of the militia was Câncio Lopes de Carvalho. In December 1998, on behalf of the [[Kopassus]], he revitalised a pro-integration youth movement that he had led in the early 1990s, and renamed it Mahidi. On 1 January 1999, the militia was ceremonially sworn in in the presence of the heads of the Indonesian police and military in [[Ainaro]]. Some members are said to have been pressed into the militia. Carvalho's brother Nemecio (also Remecio or Remesio) held the post of intelligence officer in the militia. The militia was formed as a result of the increasingly militant mood of independence supporters in the district of Ainaro. Some houses had gone up in flames. In April 1999, Mahidi had 1,000 to 2,000 members and around 500 firearms. Carvalho told the BBC in an interview that he had received an automatic weapon from the military command in Ainaro.
Mahidi had its headquarters in [[Cassa, Ainaro]] in the south of the municipality. There were branches in every village in Ainaro. A second centre was founded in [[Manutaci]] under Daniel Pereira. Under Vasco da Cruz, some of the militia extended into the neighbouring municipality of [[Cova Lima Municipality|Cova Lima]].
[[File:54-Otonomi campaign-1 Mahidi Milizen.jpg|thumb|Members of Mahidi (1999)]]
In the course of 1999, the militiamen committed a large number of acts of violence during [[1999 East Timorese crisis|Operation Guntur]], whom human rights supporters accuse of many crimes. The violence only came to an end with the arrival of the international [[INTERFET]] intervention force. Carvalho went to West Timor in Indonesia, where he settled and lived in camps. He had sought assistance from the Indonesian government, citing a perceived unreciprocated patriotic service to Indonesia.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Damaledo|first=Andrey|title=Divided Loyalties: Displacement, belonging and citizenship among East Timorese in West Timor|publisher=ANU Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-76046-237-6|location=Acron|pages=134|language=en}}</ref>
In January 2000, in his unrelenting patriotism, he threatened to burn down the local Indonesian provincial capital, [[Kupang]], with his militiamen if Indonesia forced the East Timorese refugees to return to East Timor. In October 2000, Carvalho declared that he had sent men from his militia to East Timor for guerrilla operations. At the same time, he offered the [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|Secretary General]] of the [[United Nations]] information about the involvement of the Kopassus in the violence of 1999 in return for an amnesty on return to East Timor. [[United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor|UNTAET]] refused.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2005-01-23 |title=Cancio Lopes de Carvalho - Master of Terror |url=http://www.villagechief.com/mot/Cancio%20Lopes%20de%20Carvalho.htm |access-date=2024-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050123005421/http://www.villagechief.com/mot/Cancio%20Lopes%20de%20Carvalho.htm |archive-date=2005-01-23 }}</ref> By October 2001, several members had already went back to East Timor including 378 refugees led by [[Nemecio Lopes de Carvalho]], the deputy commander of Mahidi.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Othman|first=Mohamed|title=Accountability for International Humanitarian Law Violations: The Case of Rwanda and East Timor|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2005|isbn=3-540-26081-1|location=Berlin|pages=114}}</ref>
on 28 February 2003, 22 Mahidi militiamen were charged with [[crimes against humanity]]. This included murder, torture, expulsion and abduction. Among them were Vasco da Cruz, Câncio Lopes de Carvalho, his brother Nemecio and Orlando Baptista. The indictment highlighted the murder of eleven civilians and the expulsion of the inhabitants of the village of [[Mau-Nuno]] on 23 September 1999, the murder of two youths on 3 January in Manutaci, the murder of four pro-independence activists on 25 January in Galitas, and the murder and persecution of several students in the district of Cova Lima on 13 April. However, all of the accused were no longer in East Timor at the time, but in Indonesia. Arrest warrants were applied for in the [[Special Panels for Serious Crimes (East Timor)|Dili District Court]] and forwarded to the [[Attorney General's Office of Indonesia]] and [[Interpol]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=3 New indictments filed at Dili Court |url=http://www.etan.org/et2003/february/23-28/283new.htm |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=www.etan.org}}</ref> With this notification, some militiamen were sentenced to prison.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=David |last2=Lipscomb |first2=Leigh-Ashley |title=When More May Be Less: Transitional Justice in East Timor |journal=Nomos |date=2012 |volume=51 |pages=257–315 |jstor=24220132 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24220132 |accessdate=8 December 2019 |language=en |issn=0078-0979}}
[[Category:Indonesian occupation of East Timor]]
[[Category:Nationalist organizations]]
[[Category:1998 establishments in Asia]]
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