Thursday November 30 1995

Twenty years of terror in East Timor

TWENTY YEARS ago next week on 6 December 1975, then US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, concluded an official visit to Indonesia. Before departing, both pledged continued US ``security assistance'' for the virulently right-wing regime of General Suharto.

At an airport press conference, Kissinger was asked about Indonesia's recently discovered interest in the neighbouring territory of East Timor. ``The United States understands Indonesia's position'' on East Timor, he replied.

The next morning, on 7 December, Indonesia launched a full-scale invasion of the territory, which had declared its independence from Portugal a mere nine days previously. In return for Kissinger's expression of understanding and the promise of continued military aid, the Indonesians had delayed their invasion plans until after the US duo had departed.

The island of Timor was first colonised by the Portuguese in the late 16th Century. However, by 1769, the Dutch had dislodged the Portuguese from much of the region and the latter's control had shrunk to the eastern half of the island. When the Dutch were finally expelled in 1949, the western half of Timor was incorporated into the new Republic of Indonesia. East Timor remained a Portuguese colony until early 1974. When it became apparent that the Portuguese were about to cede independence to the East Timorese, the neighbouring Indonesian regime suddenly discovered a remarkable interest in the territory.

Thus, in 1975 as Portugal began a process of decolonisation in the territory, Suharto's regime launched a simultaneous campaign of destabilisation. In the run-up to independence they played a major role in fomenting civil war between the territory's major political groupings, the UDT and the left-wing FRETILIN. By September 1975, FRETILIN had won the civil war, but Indonesian troops regularly raided across the border in order to encourage the belief that the war was continuing.

However, FRETILIN's declaration of independence in late November, put an end to that charade and meant the Indonesians would have to invade if they wished to gain control. This was the position for which Henry Kissinger expressed ``understanding'' at Jakarta airport.

When Indonesian troops arrived in the East Timorese capital of Dili on 6 December, they were met almost entirely by non-combatants: FRETILIN forces had decamped to the mountains in anticipation of a guerrilla campaign.

SLAUGHTER

The Indonesians set about slaughtering the civilian population. In its last broadcast, Radio Dili pleaded for international help: ``The Indonesian forces are killing indiscriminately... we are all going to be killed... please help us.''

Within three months, the Indonesians had murdered some 60,000 people, almost 10% of East Timor's population. When the issue was raised at the UN, the United States deployed considerable diplomatic muscle to block any action.

Then US ambassador to the UN, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, later wrote of how the US wanted the UN to ``prove utterly ineffective in whatever measure it undertook. This task was given to me and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success.'' In the same book, Moynihan also noted how the Indonesians had managed to murder ``10% of the population.''

He saw no contradiction.

Although the UN did adopt a resolution (No. 3845), which called for a withdrawal, Moynihan's efforts ensured no further action was taken.

In 1977, the US again came to Indonesia's aid. On this occasion, the ``human rights president'' Jimmy Carter requested and received increased military aid for the Indonesian army. Without it, it is almost certain the Indonesian military would have been expelled from East Timor by FRETILIN's guerrillas.

By 1980, the population of East Timor had been reduced by 200,000 - almost one in three of its people falling victim to the occupation.

Today, Indonesia retains control of the territory through the use of concentration camps, compulsory birth-control measures and the `planting' of Indonesian families on land from which East Timorese occupants have been expelled. In the interim, Britain has supplanted the US as chief supplier of weaponry to the Indonesian military.

Additional diplomatic and financial support is provided by the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Will they, and others like Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter and a succession of British Tory figures ever appear before the newly-established International War Crimes Court, charged with complicity in one of the worst examples of genocide in the post-war world? Or will they all pretend it never happened, as they have done for the last 20 years.