UN mission to East Timor postponed till May 1991
Source: The Independent (London)
Date: 13 November 1990.
Dateline: Bangkok.
Byline: Terry McCarthy.
Text: Full.
Remark: This story reflects growing attention in the British
media to the question of East Timor. On Saturday 10 November,
ITN gave a seven-minute slot to East Timor on its peak-hour
Channel Four news magazine programme, The World This Weekend.
The visit to London next week of Robert Domm, who met East
Timor leader Shanana in September, should add to the build-up
of attention.
Indonesia's bloody repression which the world ignores
East Timor has suffered one of the most brutal assaults on
human rights in modern history. But, unlike the Nazi holocaust
or Pol Pot's killing fields, the former Portuguese colony that
was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 barely figures on the world's
conscience. At least 100,000 East Timorese, and possible even
double that figure, are estimated to have died as a result of
the invasion. Out of a total population of 600,000, the
atrocities per capita are higher than those committed by the
Khmer Rouge.
The Indonesian army has used helicopter gunships, tanks,
artillery and tens of thousands of troops in an ongoing effort
to eradicate armed resistance. But a core group of East
Timorese guerillas, under the umbrella of the Revolutionary
Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin), continues a
low-level insurgency from the mountainous jungles of the
island's interior, denying the Indonesians the satisfaction of
attaining a final solution.
Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the guerrillas, in his first
meeting in 15 years with a foreign journalist, recently told
an Australian correspondent that his dwindling army is
prepared to accept its own extermination, "as long as Jakarta
thinks force is the only way to solve the problem".
A group of advocates in the UN, led by Portugal, continues
to criticise Indonesia for its annexation of East Timor and
demands a negotiated end to the fighting. The UN recognises
Portugal as East Timor's legal administrator.
Since 1984 the Portuguese have hoped to find some face-
saving compromise, possibly with UN involvement, to put an end
to the conflict between the Indonesians and the East Timorese.
But so far Un efforts have yielded few results. The UN was
expected to send a fact-finding team to East Timor this week
to prepare for a visit of Portuguese parliamentarians,
possibly next year. It was announced yesterday taht the visit
had been postponed and no mission would go before May 1991.
Mr Xanana's interview, conducted in a jungle hideout for
Australian radio, gave a pathetic human face to the oppression
the East Timorese have suffered under 15 years of Indonesian
rule.
Abandoned by the Portuguese in November 1975 after the new
left-wing government in Lisbon opted for rapid decolonisation,
the East Timorese had nine days of independence before
Indonesia invaded. Jakarta contended that it acted to prevent
anarchy in East Timor spreading in the Indonesian archipelago.
The area was kept off-limits to foreign journalists until
early this year.
Mr Xanana said that his guerilla movement can do little more
than stage occasional ambushes to remind the local population
that there is still some resistance to the Indonesians. "Our
motto is, 'to resist is to win'," he said. He did not say how
many men still fought for Fretilin, but diplomats put their
strength at 200 to 400 men. Although Fretilin no longer poses
any threat to the Indonesian army's control of the territory,
it is clear that popular resentment against Indonesian
domination is still high on the island.
In the countryside, Mr Xanana says Indonesian military
discipline frequently broke down, with "horrendous effects" on
the civilian population - "an entire platoon raping a woman,
sexually abusing her until she died. Many gave their lives,
others preferred a bullet to dishonour." Thousands of
civilians have been relocated in an attempt to isolate the
guerrillas. The military cracks down on dissenters, and there
are many allegations of torture nd disappearances.
The news that the UN and Portgal want to send missions to
East Timor has raised hopes in Dili, the capital, that Jakarta
may offer concessions to the local population, in exchange for
formal recognition of its sovereignty over the territory.
Even the guerrillas appear ready to negotiate. Mr Xanana
says that he is "interested and ready to debate and discuss
any project for a solution without preconditionss, under UN
auspices".