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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 21. August 28 1978

The US: Bombs away

page 7

The US: Bombs away

Photo of Fretilin people's army

Fretilin organized a people's army first against the [unclear: Portuguese] colonialists and now against the Indonesian invaders.

The Indonesian Government has been claiming ever since the East Timor war started in December 1975 that it is on the verge of winning. Yet the troops, military hardware and advisers are still pouring in. Indonesian estimates of the number of Fretilin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor) guerillas left have ranged successively from virtually none, 200, 600, about 2,000, 400, to last year's claim that 60,000 surrendered. The Indonesian Government continues to assert that East Timor is rightfully a part of Indonesia and calls for Timorese support for its "reconstruction programme".

The people of East Timor have cause to be suspicious. 60,000 of their number appear to have been killed in the early stages of the war, constituting one of the highest mortality rates per head of population in any war the world has known.

President Suharto of Indonesia recently made his first visit to the island since the invasion began. He arrived late on July 16 and left less than 24 hours later. Independent journalists who accompanied him have confirmed the hurried nature of the visit and the extreme nervousness of the military. While Fretilin maintained its harassment of the occupying forces surrounding the capital Dili, Suharto inspected boy scouts and girl guides in front of a silent and captive audience, and spoke to the appointed puppet Provincial Assembly.

He announced: "The urgent matter is the restoration of peace and order." Translated a little less literally, this can be read to mean the Fretilin forces still command too much support and the bloodshed will have to continue before any other "benefits" of Indonesian occupation accrue to the Timorese people.

Stalemate

It seems in fact that Indonesian forces have made surprisingly little headway in the 32 months they have been there. Over 600 were killed in the Remexio area (15 kms south of Dili) since June 11, Fretilin have claimed. Heavy casualties have been suffered throughout the country.

To an extent, the struggle has stalemated. Indonesia has the strength and support to keep up the offensive, Fretilin has the commitment and the support of the people to withstand it. The Timorese are fighting for their land, and they know how to fight on it. Fretilin's guerilla tactics do not give it access to the plains and coastal areas; the Indonesians cannot operate in the high country.

US Involvement

Two recent events dramatically reveal the current nature of the situation. In late May Indonesia sent in a further 15,000 troops. Presumably they were meant to make the area around Dili safe for Suharto's visit. They are still there, but seem to be making little headway. In June it was announced that the United States had entered the war. This was denied for a while, but reports now coming out which detail the range of US presence and the times and places where it has been used make it impossible to believe US denials. (A similar claim that aid was cut off for six months at the beginning of the war while the situation was examined was later admitted to be false).

The US has granted the Indonesian regime several hundred million dollars worth of military hardware in the last three years. The supply has been increased, and now they are providing advisers, mercenaries, pilots and other technicians.

The advisers have been observed directing Indonesian military offensives and are known to be training Indonesian troops. Mercenaries have been seen wearing the uniform of the crack Indonesian commando units, although they are apparently being very careful not to get themselves hurt. (No US mercenary has yet been killed.) The pilots fly US made Bronco OV-10s in bombing and machine-gun missions against liberated villages.

Indonesian Desperation

This new stage in the war signals the growing desperation of the Indonesian Government at its inability to crush the independence forces. The longer Fretilin holds out the more likely they are to win support throughout the world. Yet even with a massive influx of troops and hardware Suharto's success is not guaranteed. For one thing, it is sure to turn more public attention on East Timor and lose him support.

Furthermore, the Vietnamese experience showed that people fighting for their own rights to self determination have an advantage which no invading force can match: they believe in their cause and are willing to die for it. It is unlikely that the USA will be prepared to go as far as it did in Vietnam, but the nature of its escalating involvement bears too many hallmarks of the earlier struggle for anyone to rest easy.

The presence of the US has another side effect. Indonesian troops have long prided themselves on their own independence, never before being obliged to use mercenaries. The long months of fighting for a cause they do not benefit from and know little about has taken its toll. This open sign of their servile neo-colonial role cannot do much for raising morale.

The US involvement looks suspiciously like a CIA operation. In Angola, the US was unwilling to use regular military personnel, so the CIA recruited mercenaries to supplement the covert supply of finance and weapons. The pattern is the same.

Suharto has a well-documented history of association with the CIA going back to the 1950s, when a group of right-wing intellectuals trained in American Universities gained CIA support. After the overthrow of Sukarno they gained control of the economy and opened the doors to multinationals. US economic domination soon became the major factor in Indonesian development and remains so to this day.

The Political Motive

A victory for the forces of independence and socialism in East Timor would be acutely embarrassing to the Sukarno regime and would pose a potential threat to his own power and US involvement in the area. Indonesia has one of the most repressive governments in the world. It is plagued with mismanagement, poverty and corruption, and maintains tenuous control over its outlying islands. Success in East Timor might well lead to success elsewhere. And that would be bad news indeed for US big business.

The NZ Connection

New Zealand, too, is not without an economic interest. Indonesia receives one of the highest levels of "aid" from us of any south east Asian country. We are also supposed to have very friendly ties with Suharto. After over two and a half years of attempted conquest without any success, the last thing Suharto wants is for his friends to run out on him.

Map of Indonesian Timor and East Timor

In regard to this there is one other important aspect to the war in East Timor. The press are not allowed into the country. In fact they are not allowed anywhere near. That is well worth remembering when "official" pronouncements (be they Indonesian or American) are made on the situation. Official does not always mean authoritative. If Jose Ramos Horta comes here he might just tell the truth. And people might just listen.

Simon Wilson

THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT MAY BE CORRUPT DICTATORIAL ...OPPRESSIVE BUT AT LEAST IT IS NOT COMMUNIST...