yway, due largely to illness. But
hether it was just a tremendously

litic thing to do, or a sincere gesture

s not the point. Dictators don't change

illingly. Suharto has stepped down.
Could change in the Indonesian gov-

rnment’s Timor policy be next?

ast Timor is a small island

“country” of about 19,000

square kilometers, located
oughly 400 miles north of Australia.
he island itself was divided by the
rominent colonial powers of Portugal
d Holland. Portugal claimed the
astern half, the Dutch had the west. In
975, the Timorese in the Eastern
ortion of the island declared their
dependence from their former
olonial masters, who had administered
he area for several hundred years, and
new country was born.

If East Timor had an independence
ay, it would be November 28. That is
e day the Frente Revolusionario
imor Lest Independent—the
evolutionary Front of East
imor—government unilaterally
eclared the new country’s independ-
nce as the country of the Democratic
epublic of East Timor.

But it wasn't a democratic republic
r long. Within two weeks, on
Yecember 7, the Indonesians arrived. A

 

convoy of ships massed in the waters
around the island, and airplanes from
the Indonesian air force let loose with
bombs on the proclaimed capital of
Dili. Since then, the Indonesians
haven't treated the East Timorese any
differently, not even for the sake of the
world stage. It is estimated that of the
750,000 inhabitants before the inva-
sion, 250,000 have been murdered in
the unlawful occupation.

The Indonesian government has
attempted to offer a motive behind the
occupation. “Indonesia claims that East
Timor needs its protection and guid-
ance,” writes Sharon Scharfe in the
book Complicity: Human Rights and Foreign
Policy.

Since the Indonesian invasion of
East Timor, the Indonesian government
has forced the rural population off the
fertile farming land. The Indonesians
have planted coffee beans instead of

the subsistence agriculture that had
kept the country self-sufficient.
Obviously coffee beans are a commodi-
ty well received on the international
market. According to Taylor in
Indonesia’s Forgotten War: the Hidden History
of East Timor, “In the first year, the
Indonesian government secured 1.3 bil-
lion dollars worth of coffee trade from
land reforms in East Timor.”

And oil is an attraction in the terri-
tory, as well. Says Scharfe, “There
are...significant oil deposits along the
southern coast and in the Timor Gap
between East Timor and Australia,
[which] represents a reserve among the
20 largest in the world. The oil reserves
in the gap...are richer than all of
Kuwait's reserves.”

Also significant is the religious
aspect of the struggle. While Indonesia

is over 87% Islamic, East Timor,

continues on next page

 

   
  
   
    
 
  

long as there has been education. In
ct, it seems to be a ritual for upstart
ations suffering from growing pains—
aughter a few of your students before
u can get on with developing.

ere’s an incomplete list of some of the
ore notorious student protests:

968 - Tlatelolco, Mexico City.
ur hundred students are mowed down
army ammunition in a public square in

e-Olympic Games protests. The poet

Octavio Paz, then Mexico’s ambassador to

India, resigns in protest.

1970 - Kent State, Ohio,

Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on
student protesters at an anti- Vietnam
protest in May. Kent State is not known

as much for its death toll, as for the

impact that it had on the American public

at the time, who were suddenly

confronted with exactly how divisive the

country had become on Vietnam.

continues next page...

 HEEM AAT ate <1 Dime Blan

    
 

E.TIMOR July 199