east timor

death of a nation – the timor conspiracy – film [1994, 51:05] by John Pilger via thought maybe site.

small country – invaded by indonesia in 1975 – since then.. silence – yet 200,000 people have died, 1/3 of population.. film was made in secret.. when shown in original form… response was huge. this is updated version because people of e timor are in the news at last..

2 min – 400 miles to n of australia.. a portuguese colony for more than 400 yrs.. surrounded by indonesia – 5th largest nation in world.. has no historical or legal claim.. yet its brutal occupation/genocide have met with mostly silence from world’s leading governments..

a cover up that tells us much about the selectivity and aims.. of people in power

people in e timor call it the biggest prison island in the world

in west.. indonesia seen as a rich paradise.. nixon: greatest prize in se asia

74 – operation comodo – to squelch timor’s independent movements..

western military knew survailed.. everything that went on

9 min – greg shackelton.. 5 of them to expose indonesia’s operation.. report.. then all 5 killed next day. west knew about it.. but didn’t want to interfere.. because didn’t want to destroy military links w indonesia.. no one stands up after it happens.. ie: pm of australia.. officials even conspired in cover up.. he knew within hours.. he says: the were very unwise to be where they were.

12 min – responses from ambassadors – australian: we should act in a way designed to min public impact in australia and we should act in a way to minimize impact to australians and show private understanding to the indonesians and their problem american: we hope indonesians will be effective, quick and not use our equipment

13 min – the big wink – ford/kissinger visit indonesia in dec.. cia officer (liechty) – what i saw that my own govt was very much involved in what was going on in e timor.. suharto explicitly given green light.

asked to delay invasion until ford left.. then.. blood bath began.. dec 7… a lot of people are being killed indiscriminately

15 min – compared in its savagery to pol pot – cambodia.. strategy was clearly to terrorize an entire nation.. cia: people herded into school bldgs while bldgs on fire.. anyone running out was shot..

cia: we were providing all the weaponry – kissinger: on the timor thing, that will leak in three months and it will come out that kissinger overruled his pristine bureaucrats and violated the law. how many people…. know about this?; staff member: 3; kissinger: plus everybody in this meeting.. everything on paper will be used against me.. can’t we construe a communist govt in the middle of indonesia to strew defense..? – .. he gave orders that shipments of american arms be stopped quietly.. but then begin again the next month. in fact, american arms shipments doubled.

81 – indonesia – the fence of legs.. 1000s of civilians died in operation.. marching across field in chains

20 min – another form of population – forced contraception.. injection given w/o any explanation to what it was.. one clinic claimed 500 injections

22 min – sampaio – president of portugal: occupation of brutal force and genocide after that..

indonesian ambassador to un: i don’t know why you ask these questions.. i absolutely reject accusations of genocide

jan 76 – american ambassador to un – sends secret cable kissinger – about being happy about good progress. he later wrote: department of state desire that the un prove utterly ineffective… this task was given to me, and i carried it through with no inconsiderable success.

25 min – torture manuals.. john reading from it, ie: interrogation repeated over and over again till the correct conclusion is drawn

27 min – britain sells hawk to indonesia.. during hight of genocide.. thatcher receives a reward for promotion of tech.. she tells indonesian people/govt – proud to be a part of you

32 min -whoa – john questioned (?) about comparison to being a vegetarian and his concern to how animals are killed compared to his concern for how people are killed. response: curiously .. no.. it doesn’t cross over

36 min – whoa

38 min – australian and indonesian pm’s flying over oil reserves of timor.. toasting.. a display of audacity/hipocracy

40 min – cemetery massacre; (official?): yes. amnesty is lying..this is politics.. we should not be true life (?)

nov 94 – change.. e timor galvanize popular uprising.. 98 – sahata forced to step down..

cia: 200000 people died because kissinger’s ego got in the way.. and (other official)’s ego got in the way..

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East Timor (ⁱ/ˌiːst ˈtiːmɔr/) or Timor-Leste (/tiˈmɔr ˈlɛʃteɪ/), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, withinIndonesian West Timor. The country’s size is about 15,410 km² (5,400 sq mi).

East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until Portugal’s decolonisation of the country. In late 1975, East Timor declared its independence but later that year was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia’s 27th province the following year. In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory, and East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002. After independence, East Timor became a member of the United Nations and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. In 2011, East Timor announced its intention to gain membership status in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by submitting a letter of application to become its eleventh member. It is one of only two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia, the other being the Philippines.

East Timor has a lower-middle-income economy. About 37.4% of the country’s population lives below theinternational poverty line – which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day^[10] – and about 50% of the population is illiterate.^[11] It continues to suffer the after-effects of a decades-long struggle for independence against Indonesian occupation, which severely damaged the country’s infrastructure and killed at least 100,000 people. The country is placed 128th on the Human Development Index (HDI).

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Timor now has revenue from offshore oil and gas reserves, but little of it has gone to develop villages, which still rely on subsistence farming. Nearly half the population lives in extreme poverty.

The Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund was established in 2005, and by 2011 it had reached a worth of US$8.7 billion. East Timor is labelled by the International Monetary Fund as the “most oil-dependent economy in the world”. The Petroleum Fund pays for nearly all of the government’s annual budget, which has increased from $70 million in 2004 to $1.3 billion in 2011, with a $1.8 billion proposal for 2012.

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Following the 1974 Portuguese revolution, Portugal effectively abandoned its colony on Timor and civil war between East Timorese political parties broke out in 1975.

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Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor was marked by violence and brutality. A detailed statistical report prepared for theCommission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor cited a minimum bound of 102,800 conflict-related deaths in the period 1974–1999, namely, approximately 18,600 killings and 84,200 “excess” deaths from hunger and illness. The East Timorese guerrilla force (Forças Armadas da Libertação Nacional de Timor-Leste, Falintil) fought a campaign against the Indonesian forces from 1975 to 1999. The invasion was supported by the United States.