History, 1975-1980

Dad has asked me to write a little bit about the history of mass violence in East Timor, so here is the first installment, through 1980:

Most people associate the word “genocide” with the Holocaust or with the Rwandan massacres (1994). Less well known are the genocides perpetrated in Armenia (1915-1917), Cambodia (1975) and East Timor (1975-1980, 1990s).

I use “genocide” as a technical term. The International Criminal Court defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such” and enumerates five means by which genocide may be carried out, including “Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” and “Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Genocide is not just killing people; it is the destruction of a people.

The target of this genocide was the East Timorese, a heterogeneous group (for example, in the 1970s over 14 distinct languages were spoken in the territory) united by colonial boundaries. Portugal set up outposts in East Timor in 16th century; in 1859 the Treaty of Lisbon formally divided the island between the Netherlands (West) and Portugal (East), cementing a distinct Eastern identity reinforced by the high number of Catholics.*

In 1974, the bloodless coup in Portugal known as the “Carnation Revolution” brought an end to Europe’s longest-serving fascist regime. The new government promptly agreed to release its colonies, including Angola (the site of brutal, protracted fighting), Mozambique, Cape Verde and East Timor.

In East Timor, Portugal administered elections but failed to achieve stability. Within weeks, the new Timorese government was challenged in a coup and a brief civil war followed, costing roughly 1,500 lives. Amidst the chaos, the victorious party, Fretilin, issued a unilateral declaration of independence (28 November 1975).

The Indonesian Army invaded nine days later.

The United States knew that Indonesia planned to invade East Timor six months before operations commenced, and the US provided military equipment. Transcripts of Secretary of State Kissinger directing a deputy to “keep his mouth shut on this thing” have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.

“This thing” was genocide. A Yale study places the population of East Timor at the time at roughly 650,000 people. In the five years following the Indonesian invasion (1975-1980) over 150,000 East Timorese lost their lives. Demographers estimate that of 21-26% of the population was killed or died as a result of the Indonesian invasion and occupation.

To quote another Yale study at length:
“Indonesian massacres of Timorese began on the first day of the December 1975 landing. Dunn calls the assault on Dili ‘one of the most brutal operations of its kind in modern warfare. Hundreds of Timorese and Chinese were gunned down at random in the streets.’ The Bishop of Timor watched from his window as 150 people, including at least twenty women, were systematically shot on the town’s jetty. Five hundred Chinese were killed on December 8 alone.”

According to Kiernan, quoted above, Indonesia soon had 32,000 soldiers in East Timor, and another 10,000 waiting in West Timor. In 1975 the Indonesian army massacred five Australian journalists. East Timorese fled to the hills and Fretilin organized a guerilla resistance movement – Falintil – which took control of roughly a third of East Timor. Through the next two decades, Indonesia almost completely cut off access to East Timor. With the absolute complicity of both the Australian and American governments, the Indonesian government effectively kept these atrocities out of the spotlight.

A second, massive wave of violence began in the early 1990s and culminated with a deliberate “scorched earth” and forced migration policy following the 1999 UN referendum for independence. I will do some more reading and write a bit about the 1990s next week.



* In the 1970s Catholic East Timorese were barely a majority; many Timorese were still identified in church censuses as animist. Currently, over 95% of Timorese identify as Catholic.

For more details on the 1975-1989 period, please see Kiernan, beginning page 12.
Mother Jones also has a nice overview of Timorese history up until 1999.
The above cartoon was drawn in 1975, but is equally applicable to 1999, 2002...