I came to ETAN in 1994, while an undergraduate at the University of Washington. I had read a little about East Timor in works by Noam Chomsky, among others, and was astounded and saddened about this terrible tragedy. I had done some work with Amnesty International and other human rights groups, but after seeing ETAN Seattle at showings of the film “Manufacturing Consent” and elsewhere, I decided to sign up and help out.

At this same time, I began to study human rights through politics courses at the UW. I took a course from Dan Lev, and he quickly became a mentor. Dan, who passed away in 2006, was the foremost scholar on Indonesian law, and a tireless campaigner for rights in Indonesia. He encouraged me to study the Indonesian language, and directed my work toward Indonesia and East Timor after getting me into the honors program in political science. My activism with ETAN and my academic study of Indonesia and East Timor developed in unison. 

ETAN Seattle was a dynamic and active group, led by folks such as Frank Zucker, Mariza Cabral, Loren Ryter, and Joe Szwaya. We organized demos and reached out to the community to spread awareness of the injustice of East Timor at a time when Indonesia’s occupation was considered a fait accompli. Just prior to graduating from the UW, I received a fellowship that allowed me to travel to Indonesia and East Timor, and it cemented my commitment to studying the region. In early 1997, prior to the East Asian economic crisis and Suharto’s ouster, East Timor was a terribly oppressive place, and my week there strengthened my will to continue to press for self-determination.

I began grad school at Arizona State University that year, drawn by their Program for Southeast Asian Studies. With Andrew de Sousa, I cofounded an ETAN chapter here. Although our core was small, we were active, and we sponsored several speaking tours, one national meeting, and we held actions – including confronting Henry Kissinger during an appearance at ASU. When Andrew moved on – he’s now working at an orangutan rehabilitation center in Kalimantan, Indonesia – Elizabeth Venable took over. Elizabeth currently serves on ETAN’s executive committee.

I’ve travelled to East Timor eight times since my first trip in 1997. Through ETAN, I served as an accredited observer for the August 1999 referendum. I’ve seen ETAN members Charlie Scheiner, Pam Sexton, and Joe Nevins found La’o Hamutuk, a human rights and monitoring NGO based in Dili that is made up of East Timorese activists and foreigners. I’ve helped them when I can, along with other groups, as well as conducted research on these trips. When I speak to East Timorese studying in the US or elsewhere, I mention my association with ETAN – to a person, their response is always “thank you.” My response is always that I felt it was my obligation, and anyway my effort was miniscule compared to what the East Timorese did themselves.

ETAN helped change the direction of my life, at the right time and place. ETAN allowed me to express and channel what I consider my responsibility as an American citizen to pressure the U.S. government to change its policy toward Indonesia. ETAN never spoke for the East Timorese people, but rather argued that the East Timorese people should be allowed to speak for themselves. Considering these two goals, ETAN was remarkably successful. Someone needs to write the history of ETAN at some point; if I could now, I would.

WPAT/ETAN: Statement on Strike at Freeport McMoran's Mining Operation in West Papua
On Friday, October 28, ETAN, Occupy Phoenix and others picketed  Freeport-McMoran headquarters in Phoenix, AZ: Hear ETAN's Elizabeth Venable talk about Arizona protest on FSRN

Although I am not in frequent contact with most of the friends I made in ETAN, they remain friends nonetheless. Elizabeth is back in Phoenix now, and she’s helping to direct some of the energy of Occupy Phoenix toward Freeport McMoran, whose headquarters are now here. I’m in touch with John M. Miller here and there, and I write to Charlie in Dili occasionally (after some friendly back and forth with Charlie, and despite what I’ve written in this letter, Charlie’s got me calling the place Timor Leste). My Timorese “family,” the Mesquitas of Aileu, where I observed the referendum, remain in my thoughts, and I see them every time I go back; another of my observer team just visited them last month. Constancio Pinto, an activist who slept on my couches in Seattle and Phoenix, is now the Timorese ambassador to the US, and he agreed to an interview for one of my undergraduate’s honors thesis on East Timor this semester.

ETAN accomplished a tremendous amount of work with scarce resources and a small cadre of core volunteers. Although it shrank after attention turned away from East Timor following the referendum, its work remains important.

Obrigado, ETAN – a luta continua.

Chris Lundry
Assistant Research Professor
Arizona State University
And former executive committee member