East Timor dilemma

When East Timor was "annexed" by Indonesian "volunteers" in 1975 hand in hand with the Fretilin-defeated UDT, I believe most Indonesians at that time agreed to such a move. We have to remember the situation when the Cold War was still going on, and nobody would ever have wanted East Timor to become "Cuba" for Indonesia, neither would the USA nor Australia. Portugal was at that time so immoral and irresponsible by leaving East Timor as such without any effort at preparing the people to establish their own entity.

History might have been different had it not been the communist-leaning Fretilin who had won the war. Indonesia, I believe, would not have invaded East Timor if the United States and Australia were not supportive of such an "annexation". It is true that Fretilin was able to carry out a full-scale guerrilla war against Indonesia for over three years, but it does not necessarily mean that the majority of the East Timor people agreed with Fretilin. The harsh and inhuman treatment of East Timor by the tyrannical Soeharto regime might be to blame for the unsupportive attitude of the East Timor people.

Despite many hundreds of billions of rupiah poured into East Timor since 1975, it has not won the hearts of all the East Timorese if only because there were so many abuses of human rights by the decades-long and corrupt Soeharto regime. Those choosing to integrate with Indonesia seem to have remained loyal, but I do not have any notion of a percentage.

There are of course many who want to liberate their country and establish an independent East Timor but how many they are nobody knows. I also believe that there are many who do not care about integrating with Indonesia or being independent, as long as they can live prosperously and securely.

Terry Russel should have taken this situation in mind when commenting on President Habibie's view on East Timor. In the international forum Indonesia has always been blamed for the vast human right abuses, and Portugal has acted as if it had not made fatal mistakes.

H.W. PIENANDORO

Bogor, West Java