After
Suharto, Opportunity for East Timor
By JONATHAN POWER
LONDON-- If there had been no president Suharto there
would have been no invasion and annexation of East Timor.
Now he's deposed, one of the world's dwindling number of
territorial injustices can be remedied in a week-end's
negociations--the leadership of East Timor is ready and
waiting. If President B.J. Habibie, Suharto's step-in, won't
do it then a newly elected president in the elections now
being pushed for early next year will have to, if a new war
is to be avoided.
Indonesia invaded East Timor, a Portuguese colony in the
Indonesian archipelago in December, 1975. It was a massive
assault, involving bombers, paratroopers and marines. The
army wrecked havoc; there were indiscriminate killings and
rape. Later, the Indonesian vice-governor admitted that
60,000 Timorese had been killed--more than a tenth of the
population.
For too long the sounds of protest have been next to
inaudible. But, gradually, the penny has dropped as nations
have been woken up to the principles involved by the
National Council of Timorese Resistance which in recent
years has ratcheted up the decibels--for which it was
awarded the Nobel peace prize two years ago.
It has lobbied and wooed the world's governments with the
facts. First and foremost, that Indonesia, despite its
proximity, has no historic claim to the land it invaded. For
400 years East Timor was under Portuguese control. It was
never a member of the Dutch Indonesian empire or at any time
part of the archipelago's political structure. The
Indonesian claim is as far-fetched as would be a Cuban claim
to Jamaica.
As late as the year before the invasion, the Indonesian
foreign minister, Adam Malik, had been saying, "The
independence of every country is the right of every nation,
with no exception for the people in Timor". But events and
opportunity changed Suharto's mind. The Salazar dictatorship
in Portugal was overthrown. At the same time there were
bitter internal struggles for power within East Timor and
the victor, the radical Revolutionary Front for an
Independent East Timor, unilaterally declared independence.
This provided the excuse for Indones¡a's invasion.
At the United Nations the initial response seemed
promising. A majority, including the West, the Soviet bloc
and the Third World, voted against Indonesia's take-over and
demanded its immediate withdrawal, arguing that East Timor
was still legally part of Portugal and had a right to
self-determination and, if it chose, independence.
But, over time, both Western and Soviet enthusiasm for
the resolution eased. It was Third World nations that kept
the issue alive but they too, with the passing years, lost
interest. The U.S. and Europe, putting principle aside--the
same principles Britain would later summon up in defense of
the Falklands and the U.S. and western Europe in defense of
Kuwait--began a strategic relationship, supplying arms to
the Indonesian military as a way, they argued, of
maintaining stability in a potentially volatile corner of
the globe. Australia, only 480 kilometres to the south, even
recognized the island as "part of Indonesia".
Not only has Suharto now gone, so has his infamous
son-in-law, Lt. General Prabowa Subianto, the man most hated
in East Timor for his ruthless record. For many years he
treated East Timor as his personal estate, encouraging his
in-laws to exploit the island's coffee, sandal wood and
marble and using his troops with wanton abandon to suppress
any criticism, organising youth gangs to abduct and
eliminate East Timorese opposition leaders.
Despite the recent political eruptions in Indonesia, the
East Timorese have shown extraordinary restraint, influenced
by Xanana Guamao, the imprisoned leader of the resistance.
It is a non-violent movement of immense self-discipline that
has worked on a long timetable, convinced that one day
circumstances would change and its voice would be heard.
Non-violence wasn't always East Timor's way. In the first
five years of the struggle at least 10,000 Indonesian
soldiers lost their lives and in the large-scale bombardment
of villages, meant to suppress the revolt, the deaths were
so huge that the late Professor Leo Kuper of the University
of California, who was the world's leading authority on mass
killings, described it as "genocide".
Expectations are now running high. If the world does not
move more quickly to pressure the Habibie regime to get a
move on and redress this wrong, the non-violent leaders
could find their influence waning and the baton being passed
to those who want a return to violence. But the last thing
Indonesia needs in its present parlous state is another war
on its hands. As much for Indonesia's own sake as for that
of the East Timorese, President Habibie needs to enter a
week-end date in his diary and negociate an honourable
conclusion to his predecessor's great mistake.
June 10, 1998,
LONDON
Copyright © 1998 By JONATHAN POWER
Note: I can be reached by phone +44 385 351172
and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
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