Interact, Autumn ‘08;
The arms trade is shrouded in secrecy, prone to corrupt practices and highly profitable. The UK has a long history of selling arms to Indonesia, and despite the insistence of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that none of these arms would be used to repress human rights within Indonesia, extensive evidence collected in East Timor has shown UK-manufactured jets, tanks and arms being used in Timor between 1975 and 1999. The UK licensed the sale of Hawk jets or other major arms to Indonesia in 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1996. The value of the UK’s arms exports to Indonesia during the period 1997 to 1999 alone is estimated to be in the region of £287.75 million pounds. Throughout this period reports of major human rights abuses in East Timor were being documented and ignored by the UK government.*
See:http://www.progressio.org.uk/, No Internet Text
* All figures courtesy of Arms to Indonesia CAAT-TAPOL Factsheet, December 2005, retrieved August 21, 2008 from http://caat.org.uk/publications/countries/indonesia-0604.php
The UK has given £1 million to the World Bank’s Trust Fund for East Timor, but recently announced it had no further plans to contribute to this programme. Although it funds other agencies and programmes in the area, even the most optimistic funding estimates over the last 10 years would be less than 10% of what the UK earned in arms sales to Indonesia between 1997 and 1999.
Progressio is asking the UK government to acknowledge its role in the occupation and repression of the East Timorese people by funding comprehensive capacity-building and rehabilitation programmes to help East Timor move into a peaceful future. Currently, the K government isn’t stepping up to the proactive and constructive role it could play to promote meaningful progress.
Snapshot – East Timor
- Official name: The Democratic Republic of Timor Leste Languages: Tetum, Portuguese
- Comparative area: roughly two-thirds the size of Wales Climate: tropical, hot, humid with wet and dry seasons – Terrain: mountainous
- Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas
- Arable land: 8.2%
- Population: 1,108,777 (but other estimates are as low as 800,000); 35% of the population is less than 14 years old
- Refugees and internally displaced persons: 100,000 (estimated) Infant mortality rate: 42 per 1,000 live births
- Life expectancy at birth: 67 years
- Religions: 98% Roman Catholic
- Literacy: 58%
- Population living on less than $1 per day: 40% Unemployment: 50% (estimated)
A brief history of the conflict
Nine days after declaring independence from Portugal in 1975, East Timor (Timor Leste) was invaded by Indonesia, marking the beginning of a bloody, repressive and violent occupation that would last for the next 24 years.
The Indonesian military forcibly displaced thousands of East Timorese from their homes and livelihoods and forbade them from leaving resettlement camps, despite lack of food or adequate hygiene facilities. All human and civil rights were suspended.
Some women were forced into marriages with Indonesian soldiers, raped or abused, often as retribution for being related to members of Fretilin (the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor). Pro-independence activists were persecuted, tortured or killed, and basic freedoms — such as freedom of speech, movement or association — were non-existent.
During this time, the world community, including the UK, turned a blind eye to the atrocities occurring in East Timor. Recently, declassified documents from the 1970s show the UK knew of atrocities and human rights abuses occurring within East
Timor but made a conscious decision to ignore this and state publicly that they had no knowledge of any abuses to preserve stability and support Indonesia as a regional anti-communist power. More audaciously, as reports of human rights abuses trickled into British diplomatic missions in the region and were ignored, the British government made agreements for future arms sales to Indonesia: thereby tacitly supporting the occupation.
The occupation was marked by several high profile massacres of citizens in addition to the general climate of fear and repression. In 1991, a peaceful protest prompted by the last-minute cancellation of a Portuguese parliamentary delegation to East Timor resulted in the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators, an event caught on film by British journalist Max Stahl (later released as a documentary entitled In Cold Blood). It marked the beginning of an international movement in support of independence for East Timor, culminating in a UN-mandated vote for independence in 1999.
After the popular consultation in which the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence, Indonesian-backed militias went on the rampage throughout the country,
punishing the general population for defying the wishes of their powerful neighbour. During the occupation it is estimated that between 100,000 and 250,000 people died.
Since independence, the nation has struggled to come to grips with its troubled past. Breaking entrenched cycles of violence and moving towards peace is a slow process and there have been many bumps in the road. In Indonesia, the military perpetrators of human rights violations continue to rise through the ranks and obtain positions of political influence with no fear of prosecution.
In East Timor the consequences of justice undelivered have fed a culture of enmity and violence between former political and ethnic rivals, leading to a spiral of violence which is preventing the country from moving towards a peaceful future. Despite the assurances of both the East Timorese and Indonesian governments that justice and forgiveness has occurred for past atrocities, the assassination attempt on President Jose Ramos-Horta in 2008 is further evidence that, in practice it remains a long way off.
East Timor: Who Cares?
- Progressio is asking all our members and supporters who believe in justice and truth to stand up and tell decision-makers that they care about the future of East Timor. As a tiny nation, far away from our daily lives, it’s easy to forget the problems and struggles of our brothers and sisters in Timor. Politicians and decision-makers in the UK will continue to ignore their obligations to this tiny island nation unless you help.
- Our new campaign leaflet features a poster asking campaigners to complete the sentence ‘I care about Timor because….’ and includes a letter to send to UK MPs. You can download it from our website from 14th October, or pick up a copy at our AGM in London on the same day at Central Hall, Westminster.
- We’re also asking campaigners to photograph themselves holding the poster, and either email, upload or send a hard copy of the photo. We’ll present these photos to UK MPs, to show them the human face of our support for East Timor.
- For more information on the campaign, keep your eye on www.progressio.org.uk, sign up to Progressio’s campaigners’ newsletter Proactive (you can subscribe at the ‘Take action’ section of our website) or join Progressio’s new Facebook group (see our website for details).
