U.S. backed RI invasion of East Timor, documents show<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Washington<\/p>\n
The United States knew well in advance of and explicitly approved
\nIndonesia's invasion of East Timor (currently Timor Leste) in
\n1975, which led to a brutal 24-year occupation of the former
\nPortuguese colony, according to newly declassified documents.<\/p>\n
Released last week by the independent Washington-based
\nNational Security Archive (NSA), the documents showed U.S.
\nofficials were aware of the invasion plans nearly a year in
\nadvance.<\/p>\n
They adopted a \"policy of silence\" and even sought to suppress
\nnews and discussions on East Timor, including credible reports of
\nIndonesia's massacres of Timorese civilians, according to the
\ndocuments.<\/p>\n
East Timor is today an independent nation. The people of East
\nTimor voted in favor of breaking away from Indonesia in a UN-
\nsponsored ballot in August 1999 before gaining full independence
\nin May 2002 after more than two years of UN stewardship.<\/p>\n
But the path to independence was bloody. Militia gangs
\nreportedly directed by Indonesia's military went on a killing
\nspree before and after the East Timorese referendum, killing
\nabout 1,400 independence supporters.<\/p>\n
Thirty years after the Indonesian invasion, the formerly
\nsecret U.S. documents showed how multiple U.S. administrations
\ntried to conceal information on East Timor to avoid a controversy
\nthat would prompt a Congressional ban on weapons sales to
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
\"I'm assuming you're really going to keep your mouth shut on
\nthe subject,\" then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger told
\nhis staff in October 1975 in response to reports that Indonesia
\nhad begun its attack on East Timor.<\/p>\n
The administration of President Gerald Ford knew that
\nIndonesia had invaded East Timor using almost entirely U.S.
\nequipment, and that the use of that equipment for that purpose
\nwas illegal, the documents showed.<\/p>\n
In 1977, officials of the administration of Ford's successor,
\nJimmy Carter, blocked declassification of an explosive cable
\ntranscribing President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger's
\nmeeting with Indonesian President Soeharto.<\/p>\n
At the meeting in December 1975, they explicitly approved of
\nthe East Timor invasion, according to the documents.<\/p>\n
Through the 1980s, U.S. officials continued to receive -- and
\ndeny or dismiss -- credible reports of Indonesia's massacres of
\nTimorese civilians.<\/p>\n
The National Security Archive had provided more than 1,000
\nformerly classified U.S. documents to help an East Timorese
\ncommission of inquiry into human rights abuses that occurred
\nbetween 1975 and 1999.<\/p>\n
East Timor President Xanana Gusmao handed the commission's
\n2,500-page report to the Timorese Parliament last Monday but
\nwanted it withheld from the public, amid an outcry from
\nopposition politicians and rights activists.<\/p>\n
Brad Simpson, Director of the National Security Archive's
\nIndonesia and East Timor documentation project, said he expected
\nthe commission's final report to show that Indonesia's invasion
\nof East Timor and resulting crimes there \"occurred in an
\ninternational context in which the support of powerful nations,
\nespecially the United States, was indispensable.\"<\/p>\n
\"These documents also point to the need for genuine
\ninternational accountability for East Timor's suffering,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/us-backed-ri-invasion-of-east-timor-documents-show-1447899208",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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