Reflections 41 years
after Invasion Day,
December 7
By
Pamela Sexton*
Dili, Timor-Leste -
Recently, thousands of U.S. military veterans
travelled to North Dakota to support the peaceful
struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux to defend their
sovereignty and protect their land and water. I
watched the veterans bend down to ask forgiveness
from the many indigenous tribes gathered there. They
apologized as veterans from the same military that
has carried out genocide against Native Americans
since before the U.S. achieved independence. In this
way, they acknowledged the past and affirmed their
commitment to ensuring the bitter past doesn’t
repeat itself.
December 7 invasion day, via Timor
Archives
This December 7, I bent down
in Timor-Leste to apologize for the crimes of my
government against the East Timorese people. On that
day in 1975, U.S.-armed and -trained Indonesian
troops launched their illegal invasion. I feel a
deep sadness and shame that my government has not
yet formally and responsibly acknowledged its
support for crimes committed here on that day and
the 24-year Indonesian occupation which followed. An
important first step would be for the U.S. to
declassify and release all its records related to
Indonesia and its invasion and occupation of
Timor-Leste.
We have been horrified by the violence
that police and National Guard forces have
used against peaceful, unarmed protectors;
by the destruction of sacred burial sites
and Native teepees and sweat lodges, by the
attempts to criminalize free media coverage.
The pipeline's construction must be
stopped before any further damage is done.
|
As a
citizen of the United States, I have a
responsibility to learn and respond to injustices
done by my own government. While my government would
prefer not to emphasize or even acknowledge this
past, I can still access this information, and I can
speak freely. I am obligated to act when I see
injustice – to use nonviolent means to prevent,
reduce or acknowledge my complicity in my
government’s actions.
In the U.S., most
people know December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day, the
anniversary of the 1941 Japanese bombing of a U.S.
Navy base in Hawaii. Japan’s target was strictly
military, and the pre-emptive strike was carried out
because Japan believed that the U.S. was close to
joining the war. In contrast, Indonesia’s invasion
of Timor-Leste was an attack on a civilian
population who did not want war with Indonesia. Most
people in the U.S. don’t know about Timor-Leste, but
the Indonesian invasion could not have happened
without the military, economic and diplomatic
backing of the U.S.
From December 6, 1975,
until 1999, the U.S. supported Indonesia’s invasion
and occupation. For this, they are responsible for
numerous serious crimes committed here. Some basic
facts:
-
December 6, 1975:
President Gerald Ford
and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
met with Suharto in Jakarta and gave a green
light to the invasion.
-
December 7, 1975: Indonesia launched the
invasion; 90% of the weapons used came from the
U.S.
-
Dec 1975-1976:
President Ford’s Ambassador to the UN,
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wrote proudly that
the U.S. wanted the UN to be "utterly
ineffective in whatever measures it undertook
[on Timor-Leste], …and I carried it forward with
no inconsiderable success." From 1976 to 1983,
the U.S. voted against every General Assembly
resolution supporting Timor-Leste.
-
January 1976: A U.S.
State Department official stated: "In terms of
the bilateral relations between the U.S. and
Indonesia, we are more or less condoning the
incursion into East Timor.... The United States
wants to keep its relations with Indonesia close
and friendly. [It's] a nation we do a lot of
business with."
-
1977:
President Jimmy Carter (known by many as
‘the human rights president’) increased military
aid to Indonesia, including authorizing an
additional $112 million worth of weapons. U.S.
support for the occupation continued under the
Reagan and Bush administrations of the 1980s.
-
December 10, 1991: A
month after the notorious
Santa Cruz massacre in Dili, capitol of
Timor-Leste – witnessed by U.S. journalists Amy
Goodman and
Allan Nairn -- U.S. officials met with
Indonesian military leaders to reinforce their
support, telling them: “We do not believe that
friends should abandon friends in times of
adversity."
-
1992-1999: East
Timor Action Network (ETAN) activists
worked with members of Congress to restrict U.S.
government support for the occupation, resulting
in a decrease in military assistance, training
and arms sales to Indonesia. Despite this,
President Clinton authorized hundreds of
millions of dollars in weapons sales and
provided over US$500 million in economic aid.
-
Early September
1999: Despite the killings and massive
destruction by the Indonesian military and their
militia which preceded and followed Timor’s vote
for independence - the Clinton administration
delayed ending military and economic support for
Indonesia. U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia,
Stapleton Roy, told a journalist: "The
dilemma is that Indonesia matters and East Timor
doesn’t." Finally, on September 10, in the face
of strong public and Congressional pressure,
President Clinton suspended all U.S. economic
aid and military ties to Indonesia.
The U.S. government has not yet responded to the
basic recommendations presented in
Chega!, the report of Timor’s truth commission.
The commission
called
on the U.S. and others to support an
international tribunal to bring perpetrators of
crimes committed during Indonesian illegal
occupation to justice. The commission recommended
reparations to the Timorese people from countries
like the U.S. that backed Indonesia.
Fidel
Castro is now dead, and Donald Trump will be the
next U.S. president. People in Cuba have access to
quality healthcare. In the U.S., 17% of the
population are food insecure and at least a million
people have no permanent home. While the health
system doesn’t yet cover everyone, many people’s
insurance is now threatened with elimination by
Trump.
While Cuba has little money, they
have sent doctors and provide medical education
to develop the health sector in many countries,
including Timor-Leste. The U.S., a far richer
nation, gives relatively small amount in aid,
largely focused on promoting private business and
supporting militaries.
As a U.S. citizen, I
acknowledge this and redouble my commitment and
solidarity as an individual, as an activist, and as
a member of ETAN, to struggle to ensure genuine
accountability and justice for crimes committed in
Timor-Leste. I will continue to push my government
to make people and their basic needs the priority,
as opposed to corporate profits and the rich. I will
continue to demand that my government:
-
release all U.S.
government documents relating to Timor-Leste
from 1974-1999, including intelligence files and
intercepted communications between different
parts of the military and government.
-
create an
independent commission with the power to
investigate, analyze and report on U.S.
involvement in Indonesia’s invasion and
occupation of Timor-Leste.
-
actively support the
establishment of an international tribunal or
other mechanism that can end impunity for those
who committed crimes against humanity.
-
follow through on
all the recommendations laid out in the Chega!
report, including continuing to block visas to
military officers who are mentioned in the
report as possible perpetrators or command
officers, and stopping weapon sales to Indonesia
if human rights violations continue (as they do
in West Papua).
-
apologize to the
Timorese people for U.S. support for Indonesia
and the crimes against humanity and war crimes
carried out as part of the invasion and
occupation.
-
begin discussions
with Timorese people from various sectors about
reparations from the U.S. government to the
people of Timor-Leste.
A luta kontinua…
See
also, Nevins, Joseph.
A
not-so-distant horror: mass violence in East Timor,
Cornell University Press, 2005
*Pam
Sexton currently lives and works in Timor-Leste.
She is a member of the Executive Committee of the
U.S-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
(ETAN), www.etan.org.,
see also
Human Rights & Justice page
About
Kissinger: The United States’ most notorious living
war criminal
ETAN:
35th Anniversary of U.S.-backed Indonesian Invasion
of East Timor (December 7, 2010)
ETAN/Tapol/Watch
Indonesia!: Appointment of
General (ret.) Wiranto as Minister confirms the
deep-rooted impunity in Indonesia (July 27,
2016)
A Timorese View:
Time to End Impunity for
Suharto's Crimes in Indonesia and Timor-Leste;
Tetum:
Agora mak tempu
atu hapara impunidade ba krime sira Suharto nian iha
Indonesia no Timor-Leste
Bahasa Indonesia:
Sekarang Saatnya Memutus
Impunitas untuk Kejahatan Soeharto di Indonesia dan
Timor-Leste (June 2016)
ETAN, Amnesty International, Tapol and
Watch Indonesia:
Truth-Seeking and Formal Public Apology Essential
for 1965/1966 Resolution (April 29, 2016)
ETAN Backgrounder
Breaking the Silence: The U.S. and Indonesia's Mass
Violence (September 2015)