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The
Indonesia/East Timor Documentation Project
Related
postings
A
Quarter Century of U.S. Support for Occupation
National Security Archive provides more than 1,000 documents to
East Timor Truth Commission after Bush Administration refuses cooperation
East
Timor Revisited
Ford,
Kissinger and the Indonesian Invasion, 1975-76
Related
link
The
Profile of Human Rights Violations in Timor-Leste, 1974-1999
A Report by the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis
Group to the Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation of
Timor-Leste
In
the news
"Report:
U.S. Arms Helped Indonesia Attack East Timor"
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post
January 25, 2006
"Government
lied to cover up war crimes in 1975 invasion of island"
By Richard Lloyd Parry
The Times (UK)
November 30, 2005
"Documents
show Britain covered up murders of 5 journalists in RI's 1975 invasion
of E. Timor"
Associated Press
December 1, 2005
"Files
show complicity on Timor"
By Donald Greenlees
International Herald Tribune
December 1, 2005
"New
documents expose US backing for Indonesian invasion of East Timor"
Agence France-Presse
December 2, 2005
"Thirty
Years After the Indonesian Invasion of East Timor, Will the U.S.
Be Held Accountable for its Role in the Slaughter?"
Democracy Now!
December 7, 2005
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Washington, D.C., January
24, 2006 - The final report of East Timor's landmark Commission
for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) has found that U.S.
"political and military support were fundamental to the Indonesian
invasion and occupation" of East Timor from 1975 to 1999, according
to the "Responsibility"
chapter of the report posted today on the Web by the
National Security Archive, which assisted the Commission with extensive
documentation.
The Commission report, entitled "Chega!" ("Enough"
in Portuguese), estimates that up to 180,000 East Timorese were
killed by Indonesian troops or died of enforced starvation and other
causes resulting from the occupation between 1975 and 1999. The
"Responsibility" chapter details the primary role of the
Indonesian military and security forces, as well as the supporting
roles played by Australia, Portugal, the United States, the United
Nations, the United Kingdom, and France.
The report
(p. 92) finds that "U.S. supplied weaponry was
crucial to Indonesia's capacity to intensify military operations
from 1977 in its massive campaigns to destroy the Resistance in
which aircraft supplied by the United States played a crucial role."
Moreover, "U.S. Administration officials refused to admit that
the primary reason that East Timorese were dying in their thousands
was the security policies of the Indonesian military."
The CAVR used more than 1,000 formerly secret U.S. documents provided
by the National Security Archive's Indonesia and East Timor Documentation
Project, which published
on the Web in November 2005 several of the key documents
detailing U.S. support for the invasion and occupation of East Timor
across five U.S. administrations.
The report
(p. 92) notes that "In response to the massive
violations that occurred in Timor-Leste in September 1999 President
Clinton threw the considerable influence of the United States behind
efforts to press the Indonesian Government to accept the deployment
of an international force in the territory, demonstrating the considerable
leverage that it could have exerted earlier had the will been there."
The National Security Archive obtained a copy of the chapter
of the CAVR report titled "Responsibility and Accountability"
from copies circulating in the international press, and posted the
chapter today because East Timor's government has not yet put the
full text of the truth commission report in the public domain or
published its contents online, despite having delivered the report
to the Timorese parliament in November and to the United Nations
on January 20.
The CAVR's final report strongly criticizes the role of the international
community in supporting Indonesia's invasion and occupation of East
Timor, and recommends reparations from the governments of Indonesia,
the U.S. and United Kingdom and from Western arms manufacturers
who played crucial roles in supporting Indonesia's actions.
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