The East Timor Page

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A Grassroots International update (June 2000) detailing the refugee problem in West Timor..

Returning Delegation Calls for U.S. and Indonesia to End East Timor Refugee Crisis

5/11/2000
A delegation recently returned from a fact-finding mission to East Timorese refugee camps in West Timor found that East Timorese refugees remain under threat from militia leaders and members of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), who are preventing the refugees from returning to East Timor.

In the more than five months that have elapsed since the Washington Post reported that the paramilitaries are "defeated and leaderless" (see below) is is clear that either Richburg, the author of the article, was prevaricating, or the militiamen have experienced a sudden improvement in their attitudes and condition.

There is still untold suffering going on in East Timor and the refugee camps in West Timor, which is still part of Indonesia. The U.S. bears direct responsibility for the deaths and suffering that this tiny nation has suffered over the past 25 years, but you would never know it from the media, which still refuses to tell the truth.Read the news release.

Clarion-Ledger Headline: "Timorese militiamen losing their will to fight"

1/2/2000
The Clarion-Ledger reprinted yesterday a Washington Post story on the current situation of the Timorese paramilitaries who went on a rampage of rape, pillage, arson and mass murder last August after the East Timorese voted for independence. According to Keith B. Richburg, writing from the Tuapukan Refugee Camp in West Timor, they are "defeated and leaderless -- abandoned by those who instructed them to kill...."

We have some theories as to why they have lost their will to fight:

Theory Number 1: They are just tuckered out from all that rape, pillage, arson and mass murder. It takes a lot of energy to accomplish serious, professional destruction, especially raping those East Timorese women. Maybe they need a rest, after which they can resume the bloodletting with a renewed sense of mission;

Theory Number 2: After their partially successful genocide the paramilitaries suddenly realized the enormity of what they had done and were overcome by remorse;

Theory Number 3: They had exhausted their usefulness to the Indonesian Military, which long prior to last August had planned the entire episode of carnage and destruction, but afterwards had no more use for them. Having made East Timor an example of what would happen to a province that voted for independence, the military had achieved its objectives and the paramilitaries had suddenly become a liability.

It's your pick.

Absent from the Washington Post's story, as always, is acknowledgment of the genocide perpetrated by Indonesia since December, 1975 on the East Timorese, with the explicit approval and aid of the United States. Since the Post, along with the rest of the major media outlets, suppressed the US role in East Timor from the beginning, that shouldn't come as a surprise.

The Post quotes one paramilitary soldier, Antoniv da Silva, 41, a member of a particularly notorious militia, as wanting to go back to East Timor, as though he was now ready to settle down to a peaceful existence after having aided in much of the destruction of Dili, the East Timor capital. In light of the behaviour of these people, it is hard to fathom the Post's sympathetic portrayal of persons who ought to be tried for crimes against humanity. The Kosovars never experienced from the Serbs the brutality that the East Timorese have suffered for nearly 25 years at the hands of the Indonesian military and its henchmen. Why the absence of outrage? For more depth, read the articles below and the links it contains. Hint: the seas around East Timor are rich in oil, and U.S. oil companies have benefitted richly drilling in them since 1973.

The Post article also pointed out, in the last sentence, that 170,000 East Timorese refugees were still in western Timor, and "tens of thousands may be there against their will." Considering the facts that 1) East Timor is Christian and West Timor Moslem, 2) East Timor is their home, and 3) that they are living in refugee camps surrounded by the paramilitaries responsible for their suffering, it should be obvious that the Post is engaging in some serious misrepresentation of the real situation: there is an enormous refugee problem that no one, least of all the leadership of the United States, is adequately addressing. Is it possible that our leadership actually wants the situation to continue as it is? You might try asking them.

Take the East Timor Cynicism Quiz to see what you know about East Timor and the U.S. role. From the MOJOwire (Mother Jones) section on East Timor.

U.S. Military Illegally Aided Indonesian Secret Police

9/19/99
According to The Observer (UK), Indonesian military forces linked to the currant massacre in East Timor were secretly trained in the United States under the Clinton Administration and that the training continued until last year. The program, codenamed "Iron Balance," was kept secret from legislators and the public after Congress outlawed the official schooling of Indonesian armed forces after the infamous Santa Cruz massacre in 1991, when the Indonesian murdered in cold blood 270 peaceful protesters, many of them schoolchildren. Trucks were afterward seen dumping bodies into the sea.

The U.S. military documents were obtained by the East Timor Action Network and Illinois congressman Lane Evans and reportedly lay out all activities of the Joint Combined Education and Training (JCET) project, under which the Indonesians trained. The documents report training "that could only be used internally against civilians, such as urban guerrilla warfare, surveillance, counter-intelligence, sniper marksmanship and 'psychological operations'".

So it appears that our leaders supplied the Indonesian government with modern armaments and free training to do exactly what they are now doing in East Timor through the paramilitaries. It also appears that our intelligence services and therefore the administration knew at least six months ago that the military was planning precisely the carnage that erupted after the East Timorese voted for independence and did nothing to prevent it. Further, the administration refused to act when the massacres commenced, using as an excuse that Indonesian "permission" was a prerequisite.

Add to this behavior the fact that numerous multinational corporations that are highly influential with U.S. legislators, the Pentagon and the Whitehouse, hold large financial interests in Indonesia, particularly in the oil and mineral resources of East Timor, and it should be obvious to even the most naive why the East Timorese have to be crushed by our "friends," the Indonesian military. Read the article in the Observer (Free but registration required)

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR): Is east Timor Really "Out of Control"?

9/15/99
A report on the role of the Indonesian Army and whether the mainstream media are truthfully reporting its role in the atrocities now being perpetrated in East Timor. Read the article

Bishop Belo of Timor Cries for Help

9/16/99
Carlos Belo, bishop of East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 1996, sends a letter to the West: the Indonesians and their lackeys, the paramilitaries, are slaughtering the East Timorease. True genocide is in the offing unless immediate and massive military and humanitarian aid from the West is immediately forthcoming. We in the U.S. bear a particularly onerous burden -- our hands are indelibly stained with the blood of over 200,000 East Timorese exterminated by the Indonesians -- over a third of the entire population of the area -- with the active encouragement and economic and military assistance of our leadership, beginning with Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford, but including virtually everyone in the ruling elite since 1975.

This ethnic cleansing,  this genocide, could be stopped instantly if our president and leadership decide to stop it. A single message would be all that is necessary. One single message is all it would take. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, by a huge factor. This hand-wringing by President Clinton is pure hypocracy on the part of the most powerful individual in the world.

You can have an impact. Write a letter to your senators and congressman; call their offices. Write letters to the editor of the Clarion-Ledger and other regional newspapers, as well as The Jackson Progressive. Send email to the Whitehouse. Write the Whitehouse.

Indonesian President announces that peacekeeping troops may enter East Timor

9/13/99
President B. J. Habibie has approved a peacekeeping force under U.N. auspices. Now the job will be to put the peacekeeping forces in place before the Indonesian army and its obedient paramilitaries massacre the remaining population. Much time has been wasted by the procrastination of our leadership; thousands have perished, slaughtered by the very arms our government has supplied the Indonesian army for decades.

According to The Toronto Globe and Mail, Canada's daily conservative business newspaper, U. S. and U.N. intelligence services knew of the plans of the Indonesian military to massacre the pro-independence forces in East Timor as early as May, but took no action.

We are deeply ashamed of the role our country has played in East Timor, from 1975 on.

9/11/99
The Associated Press this morning reported that Indonesia, in a surprising reversal of position, has "indicated" to U.N. officials that it will allow UN peacekeeping forces into East Timor.

9/10/99
TheWashington Post and New York Times report that the Clinton Administration is finally taking at least symbolic action against Indonesia for its depredations in East Timor after the election favoring independence. Specifically, the administration 1) cut off military ties with the Indonesian Armed Forces and 2) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended all aid to Indonesia.

Unlike the case of Kosovo, President Clinton is insisting on an invitation from Indonesia before he commits to a peacekeeping mission. The New York Times observed that the severance of military ties was largely symbolic, since the American military has been limited by Congress in its relationship with Indonesia due to human rights abuses over the past few years and that the IMF and World Banks had already discontinued their loan programs prior to the president's comments.

Paramilitary troops, armed and assisted by the Indonesian army, have taken to killing Roman Catholic priests and nuns, including Rev. Francisco Barreto, the head of the Vatican-sponsored Caritas charity in Dili, the East Timorese capital, and most of his staff, as well as political and student leaders.

Comment: Now that the administration has gone from studied indifference on the matter to public hand-wringing, who knows what bold strokes might follow? President Clinton might even pressure American Express to revoke the Indonesian Generals' credit cards.

East Timor: An introduction and some instructive links

9/9/99
East Timor, roughly the size of Connecticut, occupies the eastern part of the small island that sits at the end of the chain of islands that include Sumatra and Java.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 armed with American and British equipment and with the blessings of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissenger, who had departed the Indonesian capital the day before the invasion. In the process of subjugating the island, the Indonesian army slaughtered approximately one-third of its inhabitants. The American people were kept in total ignorance. Now it appears that another genocide is in the offing, and the U.S. is once again unwilling to exert its considerable influence over the Indonesian army to prevent the killings. The contrast with Kosovo is not only instructive, but should give any intelligent citizen an unpleasant insight into the true motives behind our leadership's foreign policy.

Thanks to the ubiquity of the Worldwide Web, there is plenty of uncensored information available to anyone willing to look. Here are some of the best web sites that we've found:

Timor Today. East Timor International Support Center, a project of the International Federation for East Timor (IFET), which is working to support United Nations efforts to ensure that the East Timorese people are able to make the decision of independence or automomy in an atmosphere free of coercion and terror. They have sent are people to East Timor to observe the consultation process. A well put-together web site with lots of information.

East Timor Questions and Answers: An FAQ from ZNet

ZNet: East Timor's Struggle for Independence. An excellent progressive site with a wealth of articles and speeches in RealAudio, by Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, John Pilger and others. A good place to start.

East Timor Action Network. Background and news on current events in East Timor.

MOJO Wire. Articles and background from the web site of Mother Jones magazine.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Official pronouncements from the UN High Commissioner.

The Guardian (UK): Indonesia and East Timor Pages. News and analysis. Registration Required.