From long resistance to ballot in East Timor

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas announced in January that the East Timorese would be given the option of remaining a part of Indonesia with wide-ranging autonomy or independence.

President B.J. Habibie offered the second option in response to Australian Prime Minister John Howard's proposal of a referendum.

The independence movement began when the "Flower Revolution" erupted in Portugal on April 25, 1974. This led all of the country's colonies in Asia and Africa, including East Timor, to launch a revolt for independence.

Less than a month later, Gen. Antonio de Spinola, who took control in Portugal in a coup, declared democratic rights would be accorded all its colonies, giving the East Timorese the green light to establish political parties. The colony was also given three options: autonomy under Portuguese rule, independence or integration with Indonesia.

The five political parties set up by the East Timorese were the communist Fretilin, which supported independence; Unicao Democratia Timorense (UDT), which favored autonomy; and Associacao Popular Democratica de Timor (Apodeti), Klibur Oan Timor Aswain (KOTA) and the Trabalhista labor party, all of which supported integration with Indonesia.

Civil war in East Timor erupted in 1974. The dominant Fretilin killed thousands of East Timorese rivals. The Portuguese administration moved from Dili to Atauro Island, north of the provincial capital.

Then president Soeharto met with former Australian minister Gouh Whitlam in Dieng, Wonosobo, Central Java, on Sept. 5, 1974. Whitlam pledged Australia's support for East Timor's integration into Indonesia. The U.S. also gave its approval, fearing a new communist enclave in Asia.

The Indonesian Military launched the Seroja operation on Dec. 7, 1975 to fight the Fretilin regime, which declared East Timor's independence on Nov. 28, 1975. Thousands of Fretilin rebels and Indonesian troops were killed and crippled in the operation.

East Timor's other four political parties declared the territory's integration into Indonesia on Nov. 29, 1975. The integration was strengthened in a decree issued by the People's Consultative Assembly on July 17, 1976.

The government then began financing development in its 27th province, while continuing military operations to crush separatists.

But new roads and schools failed to negate reports of human rights abuses allegedly committed by the military. Many residents joined the separatist movement to fight Indonesian soldiers.

Indonesia lost the international diplomatic battle in its attempts to find a permanent solution to the East Timor issue.

The UN passed a number of resolutions on East Timor, including UN Resolution No. 384 on Dec. 22, 1975, which called on Indonesia to pull its troops out of East Timor.

As reports of rights violations decreased in the 1980s, the East Timor issue was dropped a number times from the UN General Assembly's agenda. At the 1982 UN General Assembly, the number of countries opposing the territory's integration into Indonesia decreased to 50 from 75 in 1975. Talks between Indonesia and Portugal then began under the auspices of the UN.

East Timor again found itself in the international spotlight when hundreds of East Timorese were killed by soldiers in Santa Cruz on Nov. 12, 1991.

Former military commander Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno set up a team to investigate the incident. The chief of the East Timor Military District, Col. R. Warouw, was discharged from the military, and Maj. Gen. Sintong Pandjaitan, who was also held responsible for the tragedy, was made inactive.

Since then Governor Jose Abilio Soares and Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo repeatedly proposed special autonomy for East Timor. The proposals were rejected by the Soeharto regime.

Following informal meetings between East Timorese leaders overseas in 1993 and 1994, the UN organized the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialog in Austria in a move to encourage reconciliation among East Timorese leaders, including Belo, Abilio and Lopez da Cruz, Indonesia's ambassador at large on East Timor. Subsequent talks produced few results.

Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta, an East Timorese leader living in exile, won the Noble Peace Prize in 1996 -- a further blow to the Indonesian government.

Following Soeharto's resignation on May 21, 1997, the military agreed to gradually withdraw its troops from the territory and Alatas offered the province a special status with extended autonomy during the UN-sponsored tripartite talks with Portugal last August. The offer was accepted by Portugal and the UN.

Indonesia and Portugal, under the auspices of UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan, agreed on May 5, 1999 to hold the direct ballot on East Timor's future.

The UN Mission in East Timor is organizing the ballot and is scheduled to announce the results on Sept. 7, 1999. (rms)