blatant propaganda article:

EAST TIMOR - the U.S., Australian, and European sponsored, Indonesian-invasion and genocide.

This article was first authored in 1995-97. It evolved over the years as the move towards East Timorese independence progressed. Now, after a final wave of terror and atrocity in late-1999, the East Timorese are independent of Indonesia.

This brief article contains information on how the U.S.A, U.K., Australian & other Western Governments sponsored the Indonesian plunder of East Timor from 1975 to 1999.

Please read on for a brief dot-point synopsis of the invasion and occupation of East Timor:

East Timor is an island 400km north of Darwin (in Australia's Northern Territory). In 1974, Portugal, the former colonial ruler of East Timor, began to withdraw. On November 28 1975, after a brief civil war provoked by Indonesian insurgents, East Timor declared its independence. East Timor was invaded by Indonesia on 7 December, 1975.

Between then and late 1999, more than 200,000 East Timorese were killed. That was about a third of their population. This is proportionately more than who died under Pol Pot's regime of terror in Cambodia.

The genocide that occurred in East Timor, was as horrific and as systematic as that which occurred during the Nazi regime in Europe. Yet, not very many people in Western countries were aware of what happened nor of their own government's involvement with the massacre.

Europe and USA sell military equipment to Indonesia:

The main suppliers of military equipment to Indonesia between 1988-92 were:

+ USA = $4,390 million

+ The Netherlands = $341 million

+ Germany = $156 million.

+ United Kingdom (England) = $201 million.

(Source for the above figures: the "New Internationalist" magazine, March 1994)

In 1978, at the height of the post-invasion massacres in East Timor, British Foreign Secretary David Owen approved the sale of British Hawk ground attack aircraft to Indonesia. In 1993 British Aerospace agreed a $1,200 million deal for more Hawk aircraft. There is plenty of eye-witness testimony that these aircraft were used in attacks on East Timor.

Until recently the US and Australian governments provided training to the Indonesian military's special forces. These forces were regularly involved in campaigns of terror and torture of the East Timorese, as well as of the citizens of Indonesia.

Phillip Liechty was the CIA desk officer in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, at the time of the 1975 invasion. In his words: "I saw the intelligence that came from firm sources. There were people being herded into school buildings by the Indonesian soldiers and the buildings set on fire; anyone trying to get out was shot. There were people herded into fields and machine-gunned. We knew the place was a free-fire zone. None of that got out."

Women were systematically raped, abused and sterilised by the Indonesian military as part of a program of "ethnic cleansing".

The Western journalists who were in East Timor in 1975 were murdered by the Indonesian military just prior to and during the invasion. This included 2 Australian film crews. As a result there was very little news about the invasion in the outside world.

The UN General Assembly passed a total of 10 resolutions calling on Indonesia to withdraw its troops "without delay". Unlike the UN's resolve against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, nothing happened.

In 1991, a British cameraman, Max Stahl secretly videoetaped Indonesian troops murdering a crowd of young people in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili (the capital of East Timor). This broke the media silence. Over 500 people were left dead or "disappeared". There is evidence that the Indonesian military conducted a second massacre after the cemetery shootings.

Timorese flee Indonesian bullets at Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili, 1991'

Timorese flee Indonesian bullets at Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili, 1991. The above is a still from Max Stuhl's video.

Historically and culturally, the people of East Timor are quite different from the rest of Indonesia and particularly from the Javanese. While most Indonesians are Muslims, Hindu or Buddhist, the East Timorese are animist or Catholic. Similarly, East Timor was colonised by Portugal whereas the rest of Indonesia was colonised by the Dutch. This dispells the myth promoted by the Indonesian regime that the East Timorese share a "common brotherhood" with Indonesia.

During World War II, 40,000 East Timorese died helping the Australian Army defend Australia against the Japanese. At the end of the war, Australia dropped leaflets on East Timor, saying "Friends, we will not forget you."

Australia was the only country in the world to have given official legal recognition to Indonesia's occupation.

It seems that past Australian governments supported the genocide in East Timor in order to ensure that Western oil companies could exploit the oil in the Timor Gap sea. In 1989, Gareth Evans, Australia's Foreign Minister, and the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas, signed a treaty that allowed Australian companies such as BHP to drill for oil and gas in the Timor gap.

The war in East Timor cost the Indonesian Government $2 million a day to maintain.

(as of 1998) The Australian government has just given millions of dollars of unconditional aid to Indonesia whose economy is in dire trouble.

The former President, Suharto, who dictated Indonesia for over 30 years, had a special real estate interest in East Timor. He had very large land holdings there. Apparently, his second largest land holdings are on the "holiday paradise" island of Bali. In other words, the Western tourists who flock(ed) to the island of Bali over many years, were actually giving their money to someone responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people*** and the continuing oppression of millions more. Suharto was "kicked out" by an uprising of the Indonesian people in 1998. Despite a few such cosmetic changes, not much has changed in Indonesia. Behind the scenes, the military and a few ultra-rich families still rule. They are propped up by Western governments and companies. (*** this refers not only to the people killed in East Timor: during the mid-1960s, Suharto oversaw the murder of over 500,000 people in Indonesia.)

In September 1999, East Timor was subject to a scorched earth policy by the Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian militias. This occurred after the East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia. As the militias and Indonesian military had terrorised and scared off all foreign media, it was feared, at the time, that tens of thousands of people, even hundreds of thousands, were being killed by the military and militias. Thankfully, it was later determined that the scale of atrocities was not as great as feared. Most people escaped to the hills of East Timor although hundreds of thousands were herded into concentration camps in Indonesian West Timor and other parts of Indonesia. Many of these people are still being detained in these camps, over a year later. They are completely at the mercy of the pro-Indonesia militias.

city of Dili burns 10 sep 1999

There are numerous other parts of Indonesia where the people wish to be self-governing. In particular, the people of Irian Jaya (also known as "West Papua") and in Aceh (the Western part of the island of Sumatra). Their struggles for independence continue.

Online Resources:

www.easttimor.com

Green Left Weekly: newspaper committed to human and civil rights, environmental sustainability, democracy, and equality. It has regular articles on East Timor and Indonesia http://www.greenleft.org.au/

East Timor Action Network USA http://www.etan.org/default.htm. Up to the moment news and historical details.

Loro Sae: A Portugese site dedicated to East Timor (click on image).