Timor is an island just north of Australia across the Timor Sea. Today, Timor is essentially split in half. East Timor is an independent nation that gained independence in 2002 as a result of the right to self-determination and West Timor is under the control of Indonesia. East Timor was a Portuguese colony and the west was a Dutch colony until Indonesian independence in 1945. In 1974, the Portuguese military dictator was overthrown in a coup. Portugal decided to give up its colony of East Timor. Political parties emerged in East Timor but two specifically had a lot of support, the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin). By September it was clear that Fretilin, described as a “populist” party, had emerged victorious. In August 1975, an attempted coup by UDT, backed by the Indonesian dictator Suharto, led to a brief civil war in which two to three thousand people were killed. One thing that was clear is that the people of East Timor – 78% of voters - wanted an independent state, separate from the brutal rule of Suharto.
Noam Chomsky said this about what ensued on the island of Timor, “If we do not like what we find when we look at the facts – and few will fail to be appalled if they take and honest look – we can work to bring about changes in the practices and structure of institutions that cause terrible suffering and slaughter… To the extent that we see ourselves as citizens in a democratic community, we have the responsibility to devote our energies to these ends.” He also said that “what has happened” is “very much under our control, so directly that blood is on our hands.” So let’s take an honest look and remember that this is not an isolated event, things like this are still happening today.
Immediately following the civil war, the country was opened up to foreign observers. Journalists and aid organizations came in with quite positive reactions. Journalists were impressed by how much popular support Fretilin had. The Fretilin government had made measures for agricultural reform and they introduced literacy programs.
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| Suharto with President Ford and Kissinger |
The Indonesian government wanted to control East Timor and so the Indonesian navy surrounded the island to prepare for an attack. Fretilin asked Portugal to take responsibility, in accordance with UN mandates, for the process of decolonization and to send international observers to deter any act by Indonesia but the requests fell on deaf ears. Fretilin declared independence on November 28, 1975 and then on December 7, the Indonesian armed forces launched an invasion and took the capital city of Dili. The attack took place just a few hours after President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger boarded a plane to leave the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. The army that invaded was supplied with arms from abroad, 90 percent of which were supplied by the US. This is despite the fact that the US Congress had imposed a six-month arms ban on Indonesia in response to the invasion.
The invasion was more brutal and murderous then anyone could imagine. By 1977-78, Indonesia was engaged in full-scale destruction of East Timor. All the familiar techniques of brutal military conquest were employed including massive bombardment, forced population removal, and the destruction of crops and villages. The pre-war population was about 700,000 and of this at least one-quarter of the population was slaughtered or starved to death as a result of the invasion. The remaining population fled, hid and suffered from starvation or turned themselves over to the Indonesian army which stuffed them into concentration camps. Many of the people in the concentration camps suffered similar fates to the victims of the initial invasion. Scholars compare the genocide here to that of Pol Pot in Cambodia. Throughout the genocide, the US continued to give the necessary military and diplomatic support so that the slaughter could continue.
The United Nations condemned the Indonesian aggression and called for the Timorese to be able to exercise their right to self-determination. In his memoirs the US Ambassador to the UN, Daniel P. Moynihan remembers the East Timor genocide. “The US wished things to turn out as they did, and worked to bring this about. The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. The task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success.” Moynihan obeyed orders even though he knew what was going on in East Timor. In 1976, he cited an estimate by the deputy chairman of the provisional government of East Timor - put in place by Indonesia - “that some sixty thousand persons had been killed since the outbreak of civil war.” To clarify, 2 to 3 thousand died in the civil war, the other 57,000 were because of the invading Indonesian army.
After the invasion, the situation virtually disappeared from the news. The silence by American media stands as solid evidence that the propaganda machine was working very well. Throughout, the US government pretended as if they knew nothing of atrocities. Much the same as they did two decades later in Rwanda. It was all lies, they knew exactly what was happening in both cases. Government officials were cited saying that “the sensible and human course is to recognize Indonesian control.”
The US Human Rights Administration was the institution responsible for ensuring the flow of arms to the Indonesian military. The so-called “human rights” reports of the State Department completely ignore the incredible amount of evidence of the massive atrocities. They also had the audacity to act as if everything was normal. These “human rights” officials were silencing the atrocities just to ensure that the US could keep pouring weapons into Indonesia. A report that was prepared by the infamous Congressional Research Service (CRS) in November of 1979 states that “reports from Timor indicate a partial return to normalcy there although genuine self-determination for the Timorese is a dim prospect.”
Government concealment coupled with the corporate lackey media in America succeeded in allowing these atrocities to continue. Let’s look at the New York Times, one of the most prominent and respected media sources in the United States. In 1979, the Times interviewed Father Leoneto Vierira do Rogo, an eyewitness and 63 year old Portuguese priest who spent 3 years in the mountains before surrendering to the Indonesia army in January of 1979. When he surrendered he was suffering from malaria and starvation, and he was sent to a concentration camp for interrogation. Here’s what he told the NY Times:
“Problems started in early 1977. A full-scale bombardment of the whole island began. From that point there emerged death, illness, despair. The second phase of the bombing was late 1977 to early 1979, with modern aircraft. This was the firebombing phase of the bombing. Even up to this time, people could still live. The genocide and starvation was the result of the full-scale incendiary bombing… We saw the end coming. People could not plant. I personally witnessed – while running from protected areas, going from tribe to tribe – the great massacre from bombardment and people dying of starvation. In 1979 people began surrendering because there was no other option. When people began dying, the others began to give up.”
Father Leoneto estimated that 200,000 people had died during the four years of invasion. Of all of this, the NY Times printed just this, “He said that bombardment and systematic destruction of croplands in 1978 were intended to starve the islanders into submission.”
The brutal offensives of 1977-79 ironically coincided with the sharp increase in arms supplies from the Human Rights Administration. Food and medical supplies that were sent for the famine were being taken by the Indonesian troops. A report in the Observer in London in 1979 quoted a Fretilin official saying “We appeal to anyone left in the world with a minimum sense of human rights to ensure that relief goes directly to our people.” The article went on to state that “they claimed Indonesian troops were terrorizing the local population with arrests, torture, and summary executions. They described the methods by which the authorities manipulated tours by visiting journalists.” There is “growing evidence of the corruption and violation of human rights in East Timor… where the US is particularly involved.”
David Watts of the London Times, went on a “tour supervised by the Indonesian military” in December 1979. He reported the success of the Red Cross operation in “saving the lives of tens of thousands of people on the brink of starvation.” He continued, “others will die, but at least help is coming to the innocent victims of the vicious starvation policy practiced by the Indonesian armed forces against the Marxist militant and civilian alike in East Timor.” Watts continues that “the people were reduced to stealing what they could, and when they could not get supplies they lived on leaves, mice, and dead dogs.” But Watts is utterly silent on the role of the United States.
For four long bloody years of war, the US media, was utterly silent and kept close to the US government propaganda line. Before the invasion there was plenty of reporting in East Timor. Henry Kamm, the Pulitzer Prize winning Southeast Asian correspondent of the NY Times, did not even mention East Timor until 1980, after the worst offensives had already passed. What does that say about journalism in the US, a Pulitzer Prize winner decided that interviewing Indonesian generals to find the “facts” was sufficient after being silent throughout the worst parts of the genocide. In 1980, Kamm finally breaks his silence about East Timor. He reports that 300,000 Timorese were “displaced by persistent civil war and that “the Fretilin hold over the population” was broken by an offensive by Indonesia in 1978. These conclusions were based on interviews with the Indonesian authorities.They had no factual basis.
In late 1979, the news began to trickle out even though the US role is downplayed or ignored. This is despite the fact that the atrocious acts that Father Leoneta and many others describe were the direct responsibility of the US government. The truth is that genocide of a population is a matter of no significance when measured against other US goals. The sale of arms and planes is more important then life. The exploitation of Indonesian resources is more important then stopping genocide. A little history on Indonesia-American relations can help one understand this a bit better.
In 1965, the Indonesian military took power in a coup that led to the slaughter of almost one million people by the new President, General Suharto. The US was very closely involved in the coup. In the late 1960s, the US was providing Suharto with lists of "potential communists" to expose of. Now they are just part of that “almost one million” figure. It is also important to note that in 1965, Suharto met with US government officials as well as corporate officials (from BP, Ford, GE etc) to basically divide up Indonesia for exploitation. In return, Suharto was given assurance that the US would keep him in power. In this potentially extremely wealthy country, much of the population, not including the victims of Suharto death squads and mass murder, suffer from extreme poverty and hunger. US business is stripping the country of its wealth and the people are suffering.
In 1965, the Indonesian military took power in a coup that led to the slaughter of almost one million people by the new President, General Suharto. The US was very closely involved in the coup. In the late 1960s, the US was providing Suharto with lists of "potential communists" to expose of. Now they are just part of that “almost one million” figure. It is also important to note that in 1965, Suharto met with US government officials as well as corporate officials (from BP, Ford, GE etc) to basically divide up Indonesia for exploitation. In return, Suharto was given assurance that the US would keep him in power. In this potentially extremely wealthy country, much of the population, not including the victims of Suharto death squads and mass murder, suffer from extreme poverty and hunger. US business is stripping the country of its wealth and the people are suffering.
In October of 1979, UN correspondent of the New York Times, Bernard Nossiter, turned down an invitation to a press conference in East Timor because he believed the issue was “rather esoteric.” He did not report a single word on the UN conference, which included testimony from refugees and others on the atrocities and the United States involvement.
As I mentioned in the beginning, East Timor did not gain independence until 2002. The US finally cut off funding for the Indonesian army in the early 1990s. A main recipient of US funding and training continued to be Indonesia until that time. A report released on the US military receiving training from other armies (which really means us training them but not saying so because we can’t) in 1998 stated that “of the twenty-eight Army/ Air force exercises known to have been conducted since 1982, Pentagon documents indicate that twenty have involved” the Indonesian army. The US continues to prop up dictators and ignore atrocities so that it can further its economic interests. We see this in the Middle East, as well as South America today. Do not believe what they tell you. Take everything they say and assume there is more to the story because there is. Just in this year, 2012, we have seen propaganda triumph in Libya, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Jordan. When will we start questioning the “official word.” The time is now!
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Thank you for posting the information here, it explains the situation clearly. For hundreds of years indigenous populations have been brutally murdered, tortured in the most horrific ways, not just killed, in order for their rich lands to be stolen by colonizers. The actions of the perpetrators of such actions indicate a degradation of the human mind and psyche. Compassion and community are the hall marks of human beings, our ability to love and care for and nurture one another. With the perpetration of these atrocities we are witnessing the devolution of the human being, not it's evolution.
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