Birth of a new nation

AT MIDNIGHT on 20 May the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking from Dili, capital of East Timor, asked the world to celebrate with him the birth of the millennium's first new nation Ð East Timor. With him in the new state's capital were representatives of nations of the world including Bill Clinton of the USA and the president of Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of a former president. Sukarnoputri's presence was seen by the East Timorese as a good sign for future relations, but they did not quite know how to interpret the presence of several Indonesian warships just off the coast.

After 275 years as a Portuguese colony (from 1702 to 1976) and 24 years as Indonesia's 27th province, East Timor is not accustomed to standing on its own feet although its people have spent the last 20 years proving they are capable of doing so. Now comes the real test, and Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo S.D.B. of Dili, one of the heroes of the island's struggle for independence, used his homily at Mass on the Sunday to spell out the difficulties. He asked Catholics, who make up nearly 90 percent of the island's population, to support the new president, Xanana Gusmao. Gusmao was leader of the armed resistance to Indonesian occupation, and spent eight years in Indonesian prisons after being captured: he is another of the country's heroes.

Belo also spoke of the Catholic Church as the only institution that raised its voice on behalf of the people, and he promised that this would continue. He hoped that East Timor would build a new cooperation with Indonesia, 'putting the harsh occupation behind them', and he clearly hoped that Indonesia would give financial help to rebuild the infrastructure shattered by years of occupation and war. With Indonesian help, he said, the nation considered to be the poorest in Asia can become the richest in five or six years. He stressed in a statement to the press that until there was an opposition party in the constituent assembly there would be no democracy.

The years before independence had been particularly harrowing. Up to the beginning of the 1990s the world seemed content to ignore and forget East Timor, which was seen as being Indonesia's problem, and Indonesia was highly regarded in the West as a bastion aagainst Communism. As a Portuguese colony, East Timor was an anachronism in western eyes; as Portugal's rickety foreign possessions collapsed it seemed sensible to allow Indonesia to take over. After all, nobody else wanted it. And so the Indonesians invaded in 1975 with no resistance from the Portuguese, who had long since fled to a nearby island. For 15 years, the Indonesians brutally suppressed a rebellious people and active resistance forces, and there seemed little prospect of early change. Then, in 1991, Indonesian forces fired on a peaceful procession to a cemetery in Dili Ð Santa Cruz Ð mowing down about 250 young people in cold blood. It was no accidental clash, but a prepared ambush, and to make their point the Indonesians followed the wounded to hospitals and finished them off there. It might have remained an unreported incident like so many others but for the fact that a British television cameraman, Max Stahl, recorded it. He buried the film reels in the cemetery and later went back to dig them up. When shown on television the film brought the genocide of the East Timorese to the attention of the world, and from that time onward the Indonesian occupation began to unravel. Those governments which claimed they were merely doing business with Indonesia - the USA, Britain and Australia in particular - were obliged to reconsider their policies. The TV film made by John Pilger 'Death of a Nation'  tellingly describes the cynical sales of arms, especially Hawk aircraft which are useful for counter-insurgency, and quotes the interesting remark of a British minister who Òdid not much fill his mind with what one set of foreigners was doing to another.Ó

Integration unravels

By the late nineties, East Timorese losses through Indonesian oppression and occupation had mounted to 200,000, one quarter of the total population, and the Islamisation of the island was progressing through the importation of Muslims from other islands. By now, East Timor had become an international issue, and the truth could no longer be hidden. International action meetings were held between Indonesian and Portuguese representatives (since the Portuguese, although abandoning the island in 1975 had not given up legal responsibility for it). The third hero of the revolution, Jose Ramos-Horta, played an important part in setting up and managing the talks. After a number of meetings it was decided that the East Timorese people should be offered, on 30 August 1999, a referendum on whether they wanted limited autonomy under Indonesian rule or complete independence: 78 percent of a massive 98 percent turn out of voters voted for full independence.

As soon as the results were known an orgy of violence (in Belo's words) was unleashed as Indonesian troops and supporting militias fell on the hapless population, tearing the people limb from limb in an effort to overturn the referendum result. The atrocities were barbaric and revolting, with wanton destruction and killing throughout the territory. Thousands were killed, and the populations of whole towns and villages were forced to flee to the neighbouring territory of West Timor, or to other islands, or to the barren countryside, leaving houses, farms, household goods and livestock to the mercy of the rapacious soldiers and militias. Churches, priests and nuns were primary targets. The mayhem lasted and spread until a rapidly-assembled U.N. peacekeeping force arrived towards the end of September. Thereafter, order was gradually restored, Indonesian forces began their slow withdrawal from the island and the Indonesian parliament recognised the results of the referendum. As the peacekeepers (INTERFET) began to find their feet, cross-border raids from West Timor decreased and the return of refugees - about 400,000 in all - began. In October 1999 INTERFET was replaced by a U.N. force of nearly 9,000 troops and 1,600 police to support the administration, now called UNTAET. Xanana Gusmao visited Jakarta, and President Wahid of Indonesia signed an agreement allowing the resumption of trade with East Timor.

Bishop Belo described the condition of his country in a recent article in the London weekly newspaper The Tablet: We are faced with the task of rebuilding East Timor, he said. Tens of thousands of refugees who sought safety in West Timor remain there still. Most of the territory's buildings and infrastructure were also razed,Ó he said. He thought the devastation would require many years to overcome: At present, most Timorese have less-than-adequate food, housing and health care, as well as one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world... we must improve life for our people, especially in health, housing, education and employment. Since any sensible development plan must first focus on getting people back to work, he suggested there should be on-the-job training for carpenters, plumbers and other artisans, carefully geared to possibilities in the private sector with companies willing to invest in the area.

The bishop said the population was slowly recovering from the terrible violence of 1999, but justice for the victims had been largly elusive, and reconciliation was slow. The psychological trauma was compounded by economic hardship: to ease the burden there must be a drive to eradicate poverty, disease and ignorance. He hoped there would be gas revenue from the Timor sea, doubtless from the very wells that both the USA and Australia were hoping to exploit with Indonesian assistance. Belo added: we must at all costs ensure that such revenues do not fall prey to corruption: the East Timorese did not make supreme sacrifices only to be betrayed by self-seekers among their number.

The Holy See has agreed to the opening of diplomatic relations with East Timor, a move that would have been difficult so long as East Timor was, or seemed to be, part of the Indonesian empire. Throughout the Indonesian occupation, the Vatican had to tread carefully, having in mind the need not to offend Indonesia, since there are many Catholics among Indonesia's 200 million people. At the same time they did not want to leave the impression that they were condoning Indonesia's occupation. Hence Pope John Paul's caution at the time of his 1989 pastoral visit, when he failed to condemn Indonesian treatment of the East Timorese. He went no further than to assure the Timorese that he would not abandon them, an assurance that they valued highly.

In September 2001, the left-wing liberation front Fretilin won the country's first free elections, with 55 of the 88 seats in the constituent assembly. Xanana Gusmao was elected president, and UNTAET was virtually given charge of running the country for the transitional period. Now UNTAET has mostly been withdrawn, and the question looms large of whether the country will be able to manage on her own for the first time, apart from a few months under Fretilin's government in 1975, between the Portuguese withdrawal and the invasion by Indonesia. The island produces little except copra, cloves and coconuts, although there are much-prized sandalwood forests in the interior. There is no doubt that East Timorese economic interests would be better served by being under the Indonesian umbrella, but the likelihood is that they would again end up under Indonesia's heel, and this is something they will not again willingly endure. The East Timorese are a proud and resilient race who have endured savage occupation twice in the twentieth century - by Japan and Indonesia - and they have emerged stronger from it. Their experiences should have prepared them well for the demands of independence. For the moment, however, the main requirement is to rebuild.