International Action Organization

Timeline: East Timor's long path to nationhood

By Jodie Hemerda

May, 2002

Much of East Timor still bears the scars left by the struggle for independence

East Timor's struggle for independence has been long and bloody, has it truly arrived?

HISTORY

Timor was a destination on ancient Chinese trade routes and was particularly known for its sandalwood. The Portuguese began colonizing Timor in the early 16th century as European trade and influence expanded in the region. They exploited Timor for its forest products and spices, and enslaved the Timorese people.

In the 17th century the Dutch also began establishing bases on Timor, and this led to conflicts between the two European powers. The island was formally divided in a series of agreements beginning in 1859. The Portuguese kept control over the eastern section, and the Dutch government eventually controlled West Timor. Over the years, Portugal showed little interest in East Timor, making life in the neglected colony very difficult. Little money was invested in infrastructure, and illiteracy levels were high. The area became a penal colony for political prisoners who had resisted the government in Portugal. The colonial police force and the use of forced labor instigated a culture of fear in the colony.

1702

The Portuguese had outposts in Timor from early in the 16th Century for trading in spice and for the sandalwood available on the island. But East Timor did not come under Portuguese colonial administration until 1702.

1942

Despite Portugal’s neutral position in World War II, Australian troops landed in East Timor when the Japanese occupied the island. Australian guerilla forces were sent to the area. Many East Timorese gave aid to Australian troops during the war, often with severe repercussions.

1974

April A coup in Lisbon led to the overthrow of the Caetano regime, the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship. The new government recognized the colonized people’s right to self-determination and began the decolonization process.

May Political parties were formed: · Associacao Social Democrata Timorense (Association of Timorese Social Democrats, ASDT) who later became Frente Revolocianaria de Timor Leste (Fretilin); · Uniado Democratica Timorense (Timorese Democratic Union, UDT) and · Associacao Popular Democratica Timorense (Timorese Popular Democratic Association, Apodeti).

August A coup was launched by the UDT to take power from Portugal before the elections. In response Fretilin took Dili and civil war resulted. This destabilization was allegedly instigated by Indonesia.

September During meetings with the Indonesian Government the Australian Whitlam Government gave tacit approval for the Indonesian integration of East Timor, saying integration of East Timor into Indonesia was inevitable. (Helen Flint)

1975

March Elections began in East Timor, supervised by the Decolonization Committee of the Portuguese parliament.

July The results of the election for local councils were announced: Fretilin candidates gained 55 per cent of the popular vote.

August The Portuguese administration completed their departure. For the previous 12 months Portugal had been gradually reducing its civil and military personnel. On 27 August 1975 the Portuguese Governor, staff, doctors and military secretly left Dili by night for the offshore Timorese island of Atauro, where they stayed until December 1975, before leaving for Portugal. From August 1975 there was no further Portuguese administration. A handover never took place; decolonization was never completed.

Rule by Force October Five Australia-based journalists (2 Australian, 2 British, and 1 New Zealander) were killed at Balibo on the border between East and West Timor, allegedly by Indonesian troops involved in the preparation of the invasion. The journalists had gone to the border to attempt to observe the activities of the Indonesian military.

November In the face of increasing destabilization and the indifference of the international community, Fretilin unilaterally declared the independence of East Timor in the hope the UN might support the new state.

Australia let Indonesia invade East Timor in 1975

Records show Canberra had 3 days warning but did nothing

December December 7, following months of covert destabilization operations, Indonesia launches a full-scale invasion of East Timor.

No help came, because the western democracies were secret partners in a crime as great and enduring as any this century; proportionally, not even Pol Pot matched Suharto's spree. Air Force One, carrying President Ford and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger, climbed out of Indonesian airspace the day the bloodbath began. "They came and gave Suharto the green light," Philip Liechty, the CIA desk officer in Jakarta at the time, told me. "The invasion was delayed two days so they could get the hell out. We were ordered to give the Indonesian military everything they wanted. I saw all the hard intelligence; the place was a free-fire zone. Women and children were herded into school buildings that were set alight - and all because we didn't want some little country being neutral or leftist at the United Nations." And all because western capital regarded Indonesia as a "prize".

Jakarta says the move is necessary to prevent a communist takeover in the territory. The invasion came in the form of a naval bombardment on Dili, followed by landings of paratroopers on the beaches. A second invasion resulted in the capture of the second biggest town, Baucau, and on Christmas Day another 10,000 to 15,000 troops landed. By April 1976 Indonesia had 35,000 soldiers in East Timor, with another 10,000 standing by in the Indonesian province of West Timor. The Fretilin army, called Falintil, totaled 20,000. December 12, United Nations Resolution 3485 was adopted by the General Assembly.

It included the points:

"1. Calls upon all States to respect the inalienable right of the people of Portuguese Timor to self-determination, freedom and independence and to determine their future political status in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,

4. Strongly deplores the military intervention of the armed forces of Indonesia in Portuguese Timor."

On December 7, 1975, a lone radio voice rose and fell in the static: "The soldiers are killing indiscriminately. Women and children are being shot in the streets. This is an appeal for international help. This is an SOS - please help us."

The Indonesian Government state the colony of East Timor was integrated as a province at the request of the Timorese leaders. The "invasion" was a rehabilitation process designed to bring East Timor’s living standards in line with the rest of Indonesia.

Fretilin activist José Ramos-Horta, who fled the island after the Indonesian invasion, spent more than two decades traveling the world as a spokesman for East Timorese autonomy, representing Fretilin at the UN from 1975 to the mid-1980s. Catholic bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo used the power of the Catholic Church to defend East Timorese interests and to remain a visible proindependence figure in East Timor.
David Gray/Reuters/Archive Photos	Jean-Marc Giboux/Liaison Agency
José Ramos-Horta - one of the main figures in the resistance to Indonesian rule in East Timor. Ramos-Horta received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his nonviolent efforts to promote independence for East Timor. Ramos-Horta shared the Peace Prize with East Timorese bishop and activist Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.	Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo - East Timorese Roman Catholic bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his nonviolent efforts to draw international attention to East Timor and promote independence from Indonesia. Belo shared the Peace Prize with East Timorese activist José Ramos-Horta.

Since the mid-1970s the international community, in particular the West, has supplied large amounts of military equipment to Indonesia. This is despite the regime's brutal invasion in 1975 and occupation of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor which has claimed hundreds of thousands of Timorese lives, and its denial of human rights in Indonesia during the past three decades.

1976

July East Timor was incorporated as Indonesia's 27th province on July 17. President Suharto signed the Bill of Integration which, unanimously adopted by Parliament two days earlier, officially incorporated East Timor into Indonesia. This "Act of Integration" took place less than six months after the invasion, at a time when over more than 80 per cent of East Timor was in the hands of the Fretilin army.

From this time until late 1999, East Timor was in conflict, resulting in a heavy Indonesian military presence in the region. Much of this period was characterized by forced resettlement and human rights abuses. An estimated 200,000 or more people died as a result of the invasion, between 1975 and 1999.

1977 Between 1977 and 1979 the Indonesian government resettled villagers in hamlets that were easier to control than the previous disparate rural communities. The resettlement program, which removed people from their land, caused widespread famine. Large-scale aerial bombardment created widespread suffering in East Timor countryside. Burying the dead

1978

January The Australian Fraser Government gave de facto recognition of the Indonesian takeover.

1988

European Union supports East Timor's right to self-determination.

1989

United Nations supports East Timor's right to self-determination.

How US trained butchers of Timor

Exclusive: Washington trained death squads in secret while Britain has spent £1m helping Indonesian army

Indonesian military forces linked to the carnage in East Timor were trained in the United States under a covert programme sponsored by the Clinton Administration which continued until last year.

The Observer can also disclose that the Government has spent about £1 million in training more than 50 members of the Indonesian military in Britain since it came to power.

Human rights campaigners claim a number of these are likely to have links with those complicit in the attrocities.

The US programme, codenamed 'Iron Balance', was hidden from legislators and the public when Congress curbed the official schooling of Indonesia's army after a massacre in 1991. Principal among the units that continued to be trained was the Kopassus - an elite force with a bloody history - which was more rigorously trained by the US than any other Indonesian unit, according to Pentagon documents passed to The Observer last week.

1991

Santa Cruz Massacre

November 12 A huge crowd attending the funeral of a proindependence activist marched through Dili, demonstrating in favor of independence. The Indonesian military fired on the marchers, killing between 100 and 180 mourners and arresting hundreds more. Timorese groups claimed that as many as 100 of the arrested demonstrators and other witnesses of the massacre were subsequently executed. The Dili massacre was a critical turning point in the resistance against the Indonesians, and it attracted widespread international condemnation.

1992

Massacre inquiry report condemns military, but soldiers get lenient sentences while protesters get up to 10 years jail.

November Guerilla leader Xanana Gusmao is captured by Indonesian troops, convicted of subversion and jailed for life in Jakarta's top security Cipinang prison. His sentence is subsequently commuted to 20 years. Konis Santana takes over as the leader of Fetilin.

Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos Horta received the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos Horta received the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize

1995

Portuguese take Australia to World Court, demanding Timor Gap Oil Agreement be declared null and void. Case lost.

1996

Suharto rejects Portugal's offer to upgrade trade agreement in return for Gusmao being released. Bishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos Horta are awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The Nobel committee says the award honors "their sustained and self-sacrificing contributions for a small but oppressed people."

1997

Increased military repression as Indonesian army clamps down on pro-independence jubilation in the wake of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1998

May A collapsing Indonesian economy triggers widespread street protests forcing President Suharto from power. Suharto's departure raises hopes that Jakarta, burdened with its own financial problems, will reconsider its position on East Timor.

June 9 In a significant shift in policy Indonesia's new president B.J. Habibie says he is willing to give East Timor a "special status" within Indonesia. East Timorese independence supporters say the apparent concession does not go far enough. Support for independence

Blood on our hands

More than 200,000 people have been killed since Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975. For decades, the British government was complicit in these killings. All that was supposed to change in May 1997. Instead, it's been business as usual.

The referendum on independence saw a huge turnout of more than 98 percent of voters

1999

Countdown to calamity

A detailed inquest into the behaviour of the western powers and the UN in Indonesia reveals a series of dire and cynical mistakes

Following a series of United Nations backed talks Indonesia and Portugal sign an agreement to allow East Timorese to finally have their say on their future in a referendum.

The United Nations agrees to administer the vote. However, the build up to the referendum is overshadowed by violence from pro-Indonesian militias backed by the Indonesian military.

"For there are no winners and no losers today rather this moment heralds the opportunity for all East Timorese to begin to forge together a common future in what is to become an independent East Timor,"
Ian Martin, UN Timor Chief.

Paula Bronstein/Liaison Agency

Voting for Independence in East Timor

In August 1999 a United Nations-sponsored referendum was held in East Timor to decide whether or not the region would declare its independence from Indonesia. In a small mountain village, a long line formed just after sunrise as people anxiously waited to vote. More than 98 percent of all registered voters participated in the referendum, and an overwhelming majority voted for independence.

August 30 A massive 98.6 percent of registered voters turn out to cast their ballot. Voters are asked to choose between Jakarta's offer of autonomy within Indonesia, or full independence – 78.5 percent chose independence.

In the wake of the vote, the anger of pro-Jakarta militias and their supporters in the Indonesian military explodes in a bloody rampage.

Tens of thousands of East Timorese are forced to flee their homes; entire villages are burned to the ground, much of the territory's infrastructure is destroyed and unknown numbers are killed.

As worldwide outrage grows Indonesia's President Habibie is forced to allow an Australian-led international intervention force to move in and bring a halt to the violence.

Militias 'intent on genocide'

Indonesia accused of genocide in East Timor
Links, reports and background: more on Indonesia and East Timor

September 7 Independence leader Xanana Gusmao is freed from jail in Jakarta, but the situation in East Timor is too dangerous for him to return to the territory.


Much of East Timor's infrastructure was destroyed in the violence surrounding the referendum

Indonesia declares martial law in the territory, but militias continue to run amok and it becomes apparent Jakarta has little authority over East Timor.

September 20 First troops in international intervention force arrive in Dili. Demonstrations take place outside the Australian embassy from Indonesian's angry at Australia's role in the peace making operation.

In East Timor itself much of the territory lies in ruins and many of those who carried out the destruction disappear into refugee camps across the border in Indonesian controlled West Timor.

Under the influence

The real reason for the United Nations' peacekeeping role in East Timor is to maintain Indonesian control

October 18 Indonesian parliament endorses the result of the referendum and declares the 1976 annexation of East Timor void.

We can end this agony

As events in East Timor focus the world's attention once more on human rights abuse, the UN's Mary Robinson says we are all implicated in the brutality

October 25 The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is established to guide the territory toward independence, building up the infrastructure and training for East Timorese self-government.

November 1 The last Indonesian troops leave East Timor as aid agencies and the UN begin efforts to bring home an estimated 200,000 refugees who fled the violence following the referendum.

The latest UN figures estimate that of the 890,000 population thought to live in the territory before the August 30 referendum favouring independence from Indonesia, 500,000 have been displaced in the rampage by pro-Jakarta troops and militias after the vote. Of these, 150,000 are believed to be in camps in Indonesian West Timor, though previous estimates have put this figure as high as 250,000. Reports from the East Timor capital, Dili, and the eastern cities of Los Palos and Daucau, where Interfet and aid agencies have established a presence, account for around 100,000 of the displaced. The remainder are missing, possibly hiding in the mountains of central East Timor, or in West Timor from where the refugee agency UNHCR is negotiating their safe return with Indonesian authorities.

2000

November

International realpolitik proved more important than humanitarian concerns yesterday when the United Nations admitted it was better to keep Indonesia's president in power than to fight for 120,000 starving East Timorese refugees who have been held as political pawns in West Timor for the past 14 months.

2001

Return of the revolutionaries

The conflict may be over, but for the women of East Timor, there is another battle to be won. Maggie O'Kane reports


Celebrations greet the arrival of peacekeepers and the end of Indonesian rule

August 30 East Timor's first parliamentary elections are held. Sixteen parties contest the ballot, but the long-standing pro-independence party Fretilin wins the lion's share of the vote. The new assembly begins work drafting a constitution that will form the basis of independent East Timor's law and government.

2002

April 14 East Timorese votes on the first president for their newly emerging nation.

May 20 At midnight May 19 East Timor becomes the world's newest nation.

So, how's sovereignty working for the East Timorese?

An intereseting concept repeatedly occurs throughout articles after found after East Timor's independence - OIL. It seems that Austraila and Indonesia have been profitting off East Timor's riches! And a Denver, CO-base PetrolTimor recently sued to recover "multi-billion dollar compensation claim against the Commonwealth for loss of rights to vast oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea."

East Timor is independent. So long as it does as it's told
President Bush cannot leave the world's newest state alone

Austrailia's Howard government finds itself in hot water after "a leaked transcript of negotiations on the deal shows the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, losing his temper with the Timorese leadership and using heavy-handed tactics to increase Australia's tax take from the project."

East Timor has been run by the UN since its rebirth in 2001, to the dismay of many who want complete sovereignty. Today, more than 3,870 UN Peacekeepers maintain the fragile peace of East Timor.
"A resurgence of violence by pro-Indonesian militants in East Timor has led to a United Nations Security Council vote to slow the withdrawal of UN troops from the new country. Resolution 1473 was unanimously adopted at the request of secretary general Kofi Annan. The resolution will leave two battalions of blue-helmeted UN soldiers deployed near the line of demarcation with Indonesian West Timor.It would also keep an international police unit in East Timor to respond to emergencies beyond the capacity of the Timorese police."

After decades of brutal persecution, the people of East timor must wait a little longer for redress

CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP; DITA ALANGKARA/AP

Indonesian General Wiranto (left) and militia leader Eurico Guterres are among those indicted in Timor's 1999 violence

What about justice? "Lt. Col. Soedjarwo was found guilty of failing to prevent pro-Jakarta militiamen from attacking Roman Catholic archbishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's seaside home, which became a haven for East Timorese seeking shelter from militia violence surrounding the U.N.-sponsored referendum."
"The trials of Indonesian army officers accused of involvement in East Timor massacres have descended into farce. Once again, the military is seen as getting away with murder."

"Indonesia's last military commander in East Timor was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for failing to prevent two attacks on civilians during the country's campaign to win its independence from Indonesia in 1999. Brigadier General Noer Muis was accused of allowing pro-Jakarta militias in the town of Suai to attack a church in which 27 people died. On the same day, he allegedly stood by as hundreds of militiamen and police officers invaded the home of a bishop. At least 15 civilians died. "

Indonesia uses war on terror to win US arms

[Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, long-standing opponent of East Timorese independence,] was among the first leaders to visit George Bush in the Oval Office after 11 September. And she has been able to take advantage of America's war on terror with the resumption of military aid which Clinton suspended in 1999, after the orgy of killing that followed Timor's independence vote, when it was disclosed that civilians had been massacred by US-trained troops.

Within a week, Bush is expected to present the US Congress with a $16 million package to train and equip counter-terrorism police units and a rapid response force in the Indonesian army. The provision is hidden in a foreign aid Bill mainly concerned with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pressure to resume the programme comes from the Pentagon, specifically Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a hardline ambassador to Jakarta during the Reagan administration. Defence officials from each country met officially last month for the first time since aid was suspended.

The proposal has invoked an outcry from human rights groups based in the US, Britain and Jakarta and from local activists trying to highlight massacres and other abuses of civilians by the Indonesian military, its cohorts and the police.
Even the Bush administration's State Department report on Indonesia noted that its human rights record 'remains poor - Security forces were responsible for numerous instances of, at times, indiscriminate shooting of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuse'.

IRAQ is not the only humanitarian issue facing the Howard Government today.

The crisis facing East Timor is profound. "Independence is very good," Gusmao told this paper during his Australian visit. "But without capable administration then maybe we will fail." The 2002 Human Development Report documented the scale of crisis on our doorstep: 40 per cent of the people live on less than US55c a day; life expectancy is 57 years; the infant mortality rate is 80 in every 1000 births; and the adult literacy rate is only 43 per cent with 46 per cent of people having no schooling or skills.

In a speech to the Asia Society's Australasia Centre last week, Gusmao looked with a forgiving realism upon his country: "Once fortnightly I meet with dozens of people, mothers, widows, youths, orphans, men, elderly, who raise and present their difficulties to me: be it the fact that they have no means of subsistence, or no jobs, or no roof, or mostly, they cannot pay their children's school fees. Just try to imagine: one Australian dollar per month per child in prep and primary school. Even this, they cannot afford to pay." There is no functioning economy or "mechanisms for the purchase, processing and distribution of products". Most people operate in subsistence agriculture. The conditions for foreign investment are yet to be created. As he said, maybe East Timor will fail. But is anybody listening?

War's Over, Now What?

East Timor's ex-guerrillas are paying a high price for the freedom they won

Resources:

Political violence is an act of force, intimidation or abuse by a group or individual aimed at influencing, maintaining or seizing political power. The time has come to end such illegitimate violence perpetrated by our own United States government.

Timeline: East Timor's long path to nationhood

East Timor is independent. So long as it does as it's told President Bush cannot leave the world's newest state alone

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East Timor is independent. So long as it does as it's told
President Bush cannot leave the world's newest state alone