East Timor
*
East Timor: Forward to independence!
The will of the East Timor people was made loud and clear in an August 30 referendum: 78.5% voted yes for independence. Despite 24 years of military occupation by Indonesia, the people have continued to stand up for their fundamental right to have their own country. The ruling elite and military high command in Indonesia refused to accept defeat. The next day a genocide terror campaign was launched against an unarmed population. Thousands have been slaughtered. Religious figures and other leaders of the independence movement have been targeted and assassinated. The U.N. compound and other internationals have been attacked.
The leader of the pro-independence movement who was freed from prison by Indonesia on September 7, Xanana Gusmao, learned his father was among those murdered. Some 200,000 of the
Timar 2 International Viewpoint #314 September 1999 illegally occupied country's 800,000 have been forcibly removed from the territory-some to nearby West Timor, others to far away Indonesian islands. Tens of thousands more Timorese have fled the capital, Dili, to the hills.
The horrific murder campaign is organized by the Indonesian military (TNI) and their armed militias. Their objective is to teach the people a deadly lesson for refusing to stay under their feet. While the New Order regime of President Habibie and General Wiranto claim the military is trying to do their job by declaring martial law and sending in more troops, it is clear that the campaign of terror was orchestrated by the highest levels of the military and the Habibie government.
Using a cynicism well known to bloody criminals the world over, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said of the Timorese fleeing the island: "These people want to go to safer places, and we are helping them." He reiterated that the army and government will oppose any outside military intervention.
For the ruling elite in Indonesia the stakes are quite high. Despite pressure from the United Nations and international public opinion, the rulers, who are based in the army, see a free East Timor as the first step toward their loss of power. The downfall of the 32-year dictatorship of former President
Suharto, in May 1998, opened up a period of democratic space not seen since the 1950s. The ruling elite was thrown into crisis by Suharto's downfall and the army was in political retreat. Unfortunately, the weakening of the New Order regime and the military did not lead, yet, to fundamental changes.
While the student-led movement was able to force Suharto out, the political awakening of the mass of workers and peasants and the urban poor is still relatively young. Even with the freest press in Asia, the ruling elite still controls the economy, army and other state institutions.
The recent June parliamentary elections to begin the process of electing a new president was done under modified old rules. The national assembly (MPR) meeting in October and November to select the president includes representatives appointed by the army who will play a decisive role in who the next president will be.
This reality of diminished power of the army that still dominates Indonesia is seen as temporary. For those, including Suharto and his cronies, who all still reside in the country, the goal is to wait out the pro-democracy forces until their forces are strong enough to reassert their control.
That's why East Timor is so important to the ruling elite. Habibie was under both international and domestic pressure to allow a referendum vote in
BEBASAN TAROL/NADL East Timor. He and his faction felt the country had to cut its losses to focus on stamping out other serious conflicts breaking out across the archipelago.
Currently there are armed rebellions taking place in Aceh and West Papua [Irian Jaya] demanding independence from Indonesia. Workers are beginning to organize, peasants and landless are pressing for land, and students and others are stepping up their campaign for an end to the military's dominant role in society.
The military strongly opposed Habibie's decision to support a referendum in East Timor. Immediately after his announcement in January, the army
units in East Timor began arming their thugs. The objective was to smash all opposition to the army's power through intimidation.
More troops in fact were sent to East Timor as well as Aceh, West Papua and other areas as opposition to the central government grew.
Why then did the army allow the vote on August 30? Clearly many in the military (if not a majority in East Timor) believed the campaign of intimidation of the armed thugs before the vote, and threats of a bloodbath if the vote for independence won, would lead to a vote for autonomy.
The military warned before the vote it would not allow the United Nations to send in armed peacekeepers, or it would be war. The military's most antiindependence officers were put in charge.
The resounding vote for independence, however, meant only one method could be used to reverse the vote: genocide on the ground.
For the military and the ruling elite in Jakarta the only issues are stability and power. The fact that a majority of leading politicians including the possible new president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, opposed East Timor's right to self-determination put the military in a strong position to resist international pressure.
Nationalist anger is also being fanned inside Indonesia to defend the "unity of the county" and oppose U.N. military intervention in East Timor.
Whether Indonesia's transition to democracy continues to advance or is retards is completely tied to what happens in East Timor.
It the army prevents the reterendum trom being implemented, it sends a message to all democratic forces (workers, farmers, students) that a repeat of the 1965 bloodbath that put Suharto in power is possible.
The democratic space opened by May 1998 will quickly close. For the ruling elite, international isolation may be acceptable to keep their power. The generals particularly calculate Washington, Canberra (Australia), London and other Western powers will not move to permanently end their ties to the most strategic country in South East Asia.
What of the U.S. role and responsibility? Although President Clinton has declared that the army's action in East Timor is unacceptable, Washington has also made clear it does not plan to seriously harm its relations with the ruling elite and army high command.
The fact that the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Henry Shelton, has been and remains in regular contact with Indonesia's defense minister and army chief of staff, General Wiranto, and that Washington had access to military cables between Jakarta and Dili outlining plans for the terror campaign in East Timor, exposes the cozy relationship between the two armies. It is the Defense Department, not the State Department, overseeing relations with Indonesia.
If the U.S. government wants to stop the violence, it clearly has the influence to do so. The symbolic stopping of military training aid by Clinton indicates the dilemma Washington is in, whereby it continues to claim "humanitarian" justifications for its bombing of Yugoslavia while doing little to aid the illegally occupied people of East Timor.
The U.S. policy in Asia like Europe
Mass
OL contents report 1: Solidarity with East Timor
Forward to independence!
2
5
Solidarity-Portugal
Solidarity-Australia
6
Solidarity-worldwide
Introducing the Socialist
Party of Timor (PST)
• a Max Lane interview europe
Netherlands: "Tomato
10
Party" victory
• Barend de Voogd
11
Czech Republic: the
Communist comeback
• Adam Novak
12 The long march of Europe's unemployed report 2: the Kurds and
Turkey
14
Negotiations in the shadow of the gallows
16
Fundamentalists lose votes-to fascists!
The Turkish left-an
17 ambiguous victory
Extracts from the
18 testimony of PKK leader
'Apo' Öcalan asia
24
Philippine colonialism in
Mindanao
27 China: religious repression americas
USA: raising America's low
28 wages • Leah Samuel africa
Zimbabwe: workers' party
30 formed • Ken Davis listings and reviews
32 • "Your money or your life", by Eric Toussaint
• "The globalisation of finance: a citizen's guide", by Kavaljit Singh
• "Mexico's hope: an encounter with politics and
", by James Cockroft history".
16" European international
34 revolutionary youth camp
Obituary: Mark Bracegirdle,
35 traitor to imperialism in
Ceylon
36
Radical press review
36 Conference diary
3
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East Timor referendum. The United Nation's credibility is at stake. since it assured the people who voted that they would be protected.
While sending U.N. troops is not a long-term solution to East Timor's fight for freedom, it is a necessary first step to prevent a total depopulation of the territory by Indonesia. It must be done now, and not after the Indonesian assembly meets later in the year to ratify the vote. (That vote may not occur in fact if the military terror is allowed to stand.)
While suspending all economic aid-by the IMF, World Bank and commercial contracts - immediately is important, it is not enough to force Jakarta to stop the violence. The East Timorese armed resistance is too weak.
is based on defending its interests worldwide. Human rights are not a factor. It wasn't in Yugoslavia; it isn't in Indonesia. For the United States, Indonesia is of strategic importance. It's the fourth most populous country in the world. It is mineral rich and located near China and Japan. Its army was a key player during the Cold War in opposing communism and it is still seen as a bulwark against China.
Washington agrees with Indonesia's army high command and ruling elite that unity of the archipelago is crucial. It's why it opposes a U.N. referendum for the rebelling provinces of Aceh and West Papua even though the peoples there are demanding self- determination, and have for decades.
The dilemma for the United States, Australia, Britain and other supporters of Indonesia's armed forces and ruling elite is the United Nations (another one of Washington's surrogate bodies) put its prestige on the line with the referendum. Its authority and ability to intervene has a lot to do with the idea that its word can be taken, and that it doesn't only favor the big powers.
East Timor — unlike other regions of Indonesia, which had been former Dutch territories + was a Portuguese colony for centuries. After Indonesia invaded and annexed East Timor in 1975, the United Nations refused to recognize it. Only Australia recognized the takeover. After Kosova, the lie would be exposed if it didn't condemn Indonesia for its genocidal campaign in East Timor and not threaten stronger action.
International pressure is key to forcing the Indonesian army and ruling elite to leave East Timor. It was international pressure along with the resistance of the East Timor people and May 1998 events in Indonesia that forced Indonesia to allow the U.N.
The key goal must be to get the killers out of East Timor. Future relations between the U.N. force and the East Timorese people will be decided later on the ground [..] * This statement was issued in September by the leadership of the U.S. socialist feminist organisation Solidarity
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