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US responsible for East Timor

To the editor,

A week ago, the people of East Timor voted in a UN-sponsored referendum for independence from Indonesia. East Timor was invaded in 1975 and brutally occupied by the Indonesian military (TNI), in defiance of more than a dozen UN resolutions. Despite terror tactics by military-created militias, the vote was 80% for independence. Since then, East Timor has been drowned in blood by the military's militias. Hundreds have been massacred, their heads skewered on stakes by the roadsides. Thousands have been herded into trucks and driven away, their fate unknown. Foreign observers and journalists have fled, leaving the Timorese to be slaughtered alone.

What is going on right now is much more than the savagery of some thugs. Rather, it is the final stage of a careful plan conceived by TNI almost a year ago. The militias were formed by the TNI elite forces around a core of veterans of the death squads which terrorized East Timor in the mid-90s. The militias were trained and given huge stockpiles of weapons. Many of the militias consist mainly of Indonesian special forces. Since this spring, they have killed hundreds of people in an attempt to terrorize the population. Now, the militias are rampaging under the direct control, and with the open collaboration of, the TNI. The massacres in East Timor are part of a deliberate and well-planned policy of annihilating those who support independence. Since the UN referendum proved that this means 80% of the population, this is an intentional act of genocide.

What is going on right now also has a lot more to do with the US than most people realize. For most Americans, the slaughter in East Timor is a small, unfortunate drama on the other side of the world, far removed from their concerns and lives. Such a perception, while understandable, given the obscurity under which the tragedy of East Timor has labored for the last 24 years, is, unfortunately, far from accurate. Unfortunate, because the relationship of the US government to what has happened in East Timor is as a willing accomplice to what is proportionately the worst act of massacre since the Holocaust.

When Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975, it did not do so on its own. Literally hours before the invasion, President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were in Jakarta, and they gave the dictator Suharto the green light for the invasion. The invasion itself was tremendously brutal, as thousands were massacred in the cities, and entire villages were wiped out in the countryside.

The response of the US government to this horrific slaughter was to double military aid to Indonesia. It also ordered its ambassador to the UN, Daniel Moynihan, to render that body "utterly ineffective" in coming to the aid of the East Timorese, a job he has said he carried out with "no inconsiderable success." The State Department explained the US support by saying that "Indonesia is a country we do a lot of business with."

The blunt reality is that the US government has a very direct responsibility for the genocide of East Timor. What's gone on for 24 years would not and could not have happened without the strong backing of the US. Thanks to the actions of the US government, there is probably not an East Timorese in the world without a loved one who has been killed, raped, or "disappeared."

Greg Knehans

Political Science Graduate Student