East Timor Essay, Research Paper

The Indonesian invasion and occupation

of East Timor is one of the worst atrocities of this century. The occupation

has claimed the lives of over 200,000 Timorese people, one-third of the

original population. It continues in defiance of the United Nations Security

Council which has twice called on Jakarta to withdraw “without delay” as

well as eight General Assembly Resolutions. It has been maintained with

the help of the United States.

East Timor, occupies the eastern half of

the island of Timor, which lies between Indonesia and Australia (approximately

300 miles north of Darwin), East Timor is has lots of mountains and is

culturally diverse. There are 12 main language groups in East Timor. Today,

Tetun is the main East Timorese language with Portuguese spoken among older

generations and Bahasa Indonesia among the young.

A former Portuguese colony, East Timor

is recognized by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory due

for decolonization. It was on the agenda of the U.N. agenda long before

Indonesia invaded and has been the subject of on and off negotiations,

mediated by the U.N. Secretary-General between Portugal and Indonesia since

1983. These talks resulted in the Tripartite agreement to allow a vote

on an Indonesian plan to grant East Timor a degree of autonomy. That Indonesia

government has agreed that if the East Timorese reject autonomy in the

U.N.-organized vote, it will repeal its annexation of East Timor. A U.N.-supervised

transition to independence would then occur.

Right now, Peace Brigades International

is establishing, upon the written request of the East Timorese Human Rights

groups, a permanent presence of international volunteers in East Timor.

The main objectives of the East Timor Peace Brigades International project

is to help maintain a peaceful space for civil society to operate and grow.

They are also working to bring about social and political dialogue that

would work towards reconciliation. Finally, the Peace Brigades are working

to empower civil society to reduce and eventually end the need for Peace

Brigades presence.