• Passabe (DVD)

• The Doctors of Tomorrow: A Documentary on the Timor Leste – Cuba Health Cooperation (DVD)

• The Black Road: On the Front Line of Aceh's War (DVD)

• From Annihilation to a New Nation: The Founding of East Timor
  6 hours of video coverage from Democracy Now! in East Timor. VHS. $50 
  Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! report from East Timor.

• Rich Man, Poor Man on Timor Sea boundary dispute with Australia and much more

Data CDs

Click here for Books and pamphlets listed alphabetically by author  

Recent Additions

• Resistance: A Childhood Fighting for East Timor by Naldo Rei

• International Law and the Question of Western Sahara, Karin Arts and Pedro Pinto Leite (eds.)

• Unfinished Nation: Indonesia Before and After Suharto by Max Lane

• Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste edited by David Mearns

• Shakedown: Australia's Grab for Timor Oil by Paul Cleary

• Sunrise LNG in Timor-Leste: Dreams, Realities and Challenges by Lao Hamutuk

• A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor by Joe Nevins

• The Crisis in Timor-Leste: Understanding the Past, Imagining the Future, edited by Dennis Shoesmith

• East Timor: Beyond Independence edited by Damien Kingsbury and Michael Leach
   

• The Testimony Project: Papua by Charles E. Farhadian

• Reluctant Indonesian: Australia, Indonesia and the Future of West Papua by Clinton Fernandes

• Masters of Terror: Indonesia's Military and Violence in East Timor

• East Timor: A Country at the Crossroads of Asia and the Pacific, a Geo-Historical Atlas by Frederic Durand

• Timor-Leste Land of Discovery by Dan Groshong

To pay by credit card: Calculate what you owe (cost plus shipping and handling: add 20%; 15% for orders totaling over $50, 30% for international air mail). Then click button. Tell us "What did you order?" in the box.

B87 East Timor: A Nation's Bitter Dawn
by Irena Cristalis

This book tells the story of the traumatic creation of Asia's youngest country, East Timor, which has been struggling to rebuild itself ever since the mayhem of Indonesia's reluctant withdrawal in 1999. The author, one of a mere handful of journalists who refused to be evacuated in the final days of the Indonesian occupation, provides a vivid first-hand account of the lives of individual Timorese during the occupation, their struggle for freedom and their endeavors to rebuild their homeland. Based on years of research, and lengthy interviews with East Timor 's leaders, priests, nuns, students and guerrilla fighters, this moving and extremely readable book is at the same time also an exploration of the complexities of the country's internal politics.

Irena Cristalis is a Dutch journalist and photographer, who been based in throughout Asia. Her past locations have included Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok, New Delhi and East Timor.

Zed Books. 2009 384 pp. $35

see also Bitter Dawn: East Timor - A People's Story 1st edition of East Timor: A Nation's Bitter Dawn

Independent women. The story of women’s activism in East Timor by Irena Cristalis and Catherine Scott

B86 Unfinished Nation: Indonesia Before and After Suharto
by Max Lane

Unfinished Nation traces the evolution of Indonesia from its anti-colonial stirrings in the early twentieth century to the lengthy, and eventually victorious, struggle against the dictatorship of President Suharto. Lane describes how small resistance groups inside the country directed massive political transformation. It shows how the real heroes were the Indonesian workers and peasants, whose sustained mass direct action was the determining force in toppling one of the most enduring dictatorships of modern times. Taking in the role of political Islam, and with considerations on the future of this fragmented archipelagic nation, Unfinished Nation is an illuminating account of modern Indonesian history.

Max Lane s Visiting Fellow, Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore. In addition to numerous academic publications, he has actively supported political change in Indonesia since the mid-1970s, and has translated work by the acclaimed Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, including the famed Buru Quartet.

Reviews in South China Morning Post, Direct Action

Verso. 2008. 312 pp. $30

B78 Resistance: A Childhood Fighting for East Timor
by Naldo Rei

Naldo Rei was just six months old when Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975. He spent the first three years in the jungle, where his family had fled for safety. After his father was murdered for his work in the resistance movement, nine-year-old Naldo was recruited by the clandestine Fretilin network and began his own extraordinary journey fighting for East Timor's freedom. Throughout his teenage years, Naldo was imprisoned and tortured regularly for his covert resistance to the brutal Indonesian regime. Eventually, in too much danger to remain in his homeland, he escaped to Indonesia and then Australia for several years. Now living in an independent East Timor, Naldo Rei can tell his incredible story. His life is proof that no amount of danger and loss can crush the human spirit.

Reviews:

• Naldo Rei- Giving Voice To The Silenced in East Timor (Jakarta Post)

• Journalist recalls East Timor violence in book

• Orphan grows up in the arms of rebels reviewed by Sian Powell, The Australian
  Raised on a nation's fight for freedom profile by Sian Powell, The Australian

• Moving story of a child of occupation, Canberra Times

• Late Night Live - East Timor autobiography (interview with Naldo Rei) audio

• SBS Portuguese Program - interview in english

U.Q.P. Australia. 2008. 352 pages. $45

B82 Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste: Reconciling the Local and the National
edited by David Mearns

In February 2008, three days after the Darwin conference from which this book arose, violent attacks took place on the president and prime minister of Timor-Leste. Some contributors revised their papers for publication in light of the horrifying attacks. The result is an important collection of articles that provides highly pertinent insights into the current dilemmas of the government and people of the new republic. The book gives voice to East Timorese commentators as well as to Australian and other international scholars

The book explores the necessity to come to terms with the past in order to move on to a better future. It also considers the role of the state and parliament in the new democracy while seeking to set these against the cultural and social practices of the people at whom development is aimed. Finally, it examines the role of the agencies that have sought to assist in the country’s transformation from a colonised to a post-colonial society with a sound economic future.

Foreword by Deputy Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Dr. José Luis Guterres. Contributing are Fernanda Borges, Fiona Crockford, Annette Field, James J. Fox, Mark Green, Damian Grenfell, Jill Jolliffe, Damien Kingsbury, Andrew McWilliam, Andrew Marriott, Akihisa Matsuno, David Mearns, Sara Niner, Yukako Sakabe, Dennis Shoesmith, Pyone Myat Thu, Josh Trindade, and Bu V.E. Wilson.

Charles Darwin University Press 2008. 270 pp. $35

B80 Shakedown: Australia's Grab for Timor Oil
by Paul Cleary

The compelling inside story of how Australia attempted to bully East Timor out of its rights to the lucrative oil and gas resources of the Timor Sea and the people, both heroes and villains, who played the game for a nation's future. Journalist Paul Cleary, a former East Timor government adviser, gives a gripping insider's account of the six years of bruising negotiations between Australia and East Timor. He saw how the Timorese pulled off one of the great David and Goliath feats of the region but then were unable to lay the foundations for a peaceful future. In this compelling insight into Australia's international operations, Cleary exposes the heroes and villains who emerged in a one-hundred-billion-dollar shakedown.

Allen and Unwin. Australia. 2007. 304 pp. $20

Reviews:

• The Australian: Oil comes between helpful neighbours

• Eureka Street: Shakedown: Australia's grab for Timor oil

• Green Left Weekly: Shakedown: Australia's grab for Timor oil

• Far Eastern Economic Review: Shakedown: Australia's grab for Timor oil

• Spying fears haunted Timorese during oil talks

B79 Sunrise LNG in Timor-Leste: Dreams, Realities and Challenges
A Report by La’o Hamutuk, Timor-Leste Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis
By Guteriano Neves, Charles Scheiner and Santina Soares

This report discusses the possible positive and negative impacts of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Timor-Leste to process gas from the offshore Greater Sunrise field for export. Petroleum will be the most important factor in Timor-Leste’s economy and government budget for the foreseeable future.

Petroleum will be the most important factor in Timor-Leste’s economy and government budget for the foreseeable future. Revenues from oil and gas already comprise 50% of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI) and supply more than 90% of its government revenues. It is the hope of many Timorese, including the Timor-Leste government, that Timor-Leste will profit from downstream (refining, processing and gas liquefaction). The most likely near-term possibility for this is an undersea pipeline from the Greater Sunrise gas field to the shore of Timor-Leste, with a liquefaction plant and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker port to process the gas and ship it overseas.

People are imagining the wonderful things that will happen if the pipeline comes onshore in Timor-Leste: it will stimulate local economic development, spin off to boost the local and national economy, and create employment opportunities for Timorese workers. However those dreams and expectations will be difficult to realize in Timor-Leste in the current context of the new nation. The fragility and inexperience of state institutions, lack of human resources, inability to execute the budget must be overcome before a project like the Sunrise LNG plant can be used safely and effectively to benefit current and future generations.

February 2008, 131 pages
Printed copies (English) are available for $20, or CDs for $10. (please specify)

B64 Timor-Leste Land of Discovery
by Dan Groshong

This gorgeous coffee table picture book illustrates the great beauty of new nation's landscape and people. An ideal gift.

I am Timorese, living abroad (in Portugal), since I was 11 years old. I want to thank you for your book, Timor-Leste Land of Discovery, which gives me some images of Timor, my homeland, that I left 24 years ago. The images are absolutely fantastic and many are of parts of Timor still unknown to me. Timor-Leste Land of Discovery gives me a fantastic free journey to Timor where I hope one day I can return. The title of the book is a perfect resume of the images that you can find within. -- Ângelo Gonçalves

This book brings new images of this new land. This book will surely offer everyone great unforgettable moments of contemplation on the natural beauties of Timor-Leste. -- President Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão.

These evocative photographs present our culture and our traits in a way no other book has done before. - José Ramos-Horta

TAYO PHOTO GROUP Ltd. 2006. Hardcover, large-format, 189 pages. $50

• Profile of photographer in the Oregonian

• HK Magazine review of Timor-Leste Land of Discovery

B76 The Crisis in Timor-Leste: Understanding the Past, Imagining the Future
edited by Dennis Shoesmith

A collection of papers originating in a symposium, The Crisis in Timor-Leste: Understanding the Past, Imagining the Future, held at Charles Darwin University, 13 November 2006. The papers in this volume address the historical, social and political causes of unrest in Timor-Leste, explaining the violence and rebellion of 2006 in a larger context. By doing this they identify ways to respond to the causes of unrest. Contributors: James Cotton, Jennifer Drysdale, Steven Farram, Trevor Le Lievre, Andrew McWilliam, Ron May, David Mearns, Rod Nixon, Kate Reid-Smith, Dennis Shoesmith.

Charles Darwin University Press. 2007. 115 pp. $25

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B74 East Timor: Beyond Independence
Edited by Damien Kingsbury and Michael Leach

This is the most comprehensive study of East Timor since independence, examining the major themes of development, borders and security, politics and justice, resource and land management, education, and language policy. Though the country was initially lauded as a case study in successful state-building, the crisis of 2006 demonstrated that East Timor had more in common with other post-colonial, post-conflict societies than some of these earlier optimistic assessments suggested.

Covering the era from the independence referendum in August 1999 to the political crisis in 2006, and future prospects and challenges, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding the challenges facing the first new nation of the 21st century.

Monash University Press. 2007. 320 pp. $30

B66 East Timor A Country at the Crossroads of Asia and the Pacific, a Geo-Historical Atlas
by Frederic Durand

This atlas highlights the specific features and characteristics of East Timor. Its 136 colorful maps show how material constraints and local, regional, and world stakes have shaped Timor's destiny, both past and present. Includes chronology, bibliography, glossary and list of acronyms, basic vocabulary.

Frederic Durand teaches geography at Toulouse II-Le Mirail University, France. He is the author of Catholicism and Protestantism in the Island of Timor and other works on Southeast Asia, the Malay world, and Indonesia.

IRASEC/ Sikworm Books. 2006. 198 pp. $50

B75 The Testimony Project: Papua
by Charles E. Farhadian, photographs by Stephan Babuljak

A collection of histories in West Papua. Twelve West Papuans speak for themselves, movingly present their life stories in 'raw narratives" as if the interviewees were speaking directly to the reader. Introduction by Ed McWilliams. Dr. Charles Farhadian, who edited the book, explains: "The goal in creating the book is two-fold. First, it is crucial that Papuans get a chance to speak for themselves, rather than being reinterpreted or silenced for any number of reasons and by any number of people. By speaking for themselves, Papuans demonstrate they are actors in their own right. Second, it is equally important to provide an historical document that records the lives of Papuans at the beginning of the 21st century."

“This book is the first of its kind. It dignifies Papuans and lets us speak on our own terms.”

-- Father Neles Tebay, Bishop of Jayapura, Papua

 

“The Testimony Project: Papua challenges the standardized or idealized views of Papuans.”

                                                                       Rev. Dr. Benny Giay, Professor of Church & Society, Papua

Penerbit Deiya. 2007. 125 pp. $20

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B81 Reluctant Indonesian: Australia, Indonesia and the Future of West Papua
by Clinton Fernandes

Clinton Fernandes traces the history of West Papua from the colonial era to its incorporation and full-scale transformation under Indonesian rule, and offers a penetrating analysis of the problems posed by the rise of the West Papuan independence movement for Australia’s relations with Indonesia. Reluctant Indonesians issues a timely, provocative, and profound challenge to the orthodox views of the foreign policy establishment and its various supporters in the media. It is essential reading for those interested in West Papua, Australia’s relationship with Indonesia, and Australian foreign policy in general.

'Fernandes’s book is a good, succinct yet reasonably comprehensive introduction to the issues and the broad political landscape of West Papua. Importantly though, it has a message of hope.' - 'West Papua's struggle for justice', Vannessa Hearman (Green Left Weekly)

'Reluctant Indonesians is a hard-hitting and well documented book which makes it a very valuable addition to the growing volume of books now available about West Papua.' TAPOL: The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign

Clinton Fernandes is senior lecturer in strategic studies at University College, the University of New South Wales. He specialises in international relations and strategy with a focus on the 'national interest' in Australia's external relations.

also by by Clinton Fernandes - Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the Independence of East Timor

Scribe. 2006.  138 pp. $22

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To pay by credit card.

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B58 Independent women. The story of women’s activism in East Timor by Irena Cristalis and Catherine Scott

This book tells the story of how East Timorese women activists mobilized against a patriarchal society and claimed their right to participate in their new independent and democratic nation.

Drawing on personal research and extensive interviews with women activists in East Timor, the authors explore the history and contribution of the East Timorese women's movement during and after the Indonesian occupation. They examine the growing influence of the women's movement as the country moved into independence, and analyze the key challenges facing East Timorese women in their ongoing quest for rights and greater political participation.

The book includes comparative chapters by expert guest authors on the lessons to be drawn from women's experiences in Cambodia, Mozambique and Namibia - countries which have also experienced the transition from an extended period of conflict to eventual independence.

Independent women dispels the myth that women working for women's advancement in East Timor are agents of a foreign or western agenda. It shows that the women of East Timor are women of courage who, on the long road to independence, have found the strength to stand up for their rights and play their part in the shaping of their country.

'Independent women is a profound testimony to the unique character of East Timorese women and to their resolve and courage in the long process of struggle for the liberation of their country and now their own liberation' - Olandina Caeiro

Further details from the book, including extracts and images, can be found at the Independent Women website at: http://www.independent-women.org/.

See also Irena Cristalis, Bitter Dawn: East Timor - A People's Story

CIIR. 2005. 198 pages. $25

B61 Masters of Terror: Indonesia's Military and Violence in East Timor
Edited by Richard Tanter, Desmond Ball, and Gerry van Klinken
Foreword by Noam Chomsky

The terror campaign by pro-Indonesian armed groups before, during, and after East Timor's independence referendum in 1999 was a blatant challenge to the international community as many of the acts of murder, political intimidation, destruction, and mass deportation took place before the eyes of the world. Yet the ultimate responsibility has been denied and obscured. Masters of Terror provides an authoritative analysis and documentation of the brutal operations carried out by the Indonesian army and its East Timorese allies. The authors carefully assemble detailed accounts of the actions of the major Indonesian officers and East Timorese militia commanders accused of gross human rights violations. This indispensable work explores a horrific frontal attack on democracy and calls for the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Contents: * Introduction Hamish McDonald and Richard Tanter * Masters of Terror: The Indonesian Findings Hamish McDonald * Full Report of the Investigative Commission into Human Rights Violations in East Timor KPP HAM * The Key Suspects: An Introduction Gerry van Klinken, David Bourchier and Douglas Kammen * Crimes against Humanity in East Timor 1999:The Key Suspects Gerry van Klinken and David Bourchier * Practical Justice in Doe v. Lumintang: The Successful Useof Civil Remedies against "an Enemy of All Mankind" Richard Tanter * Silent Witness: Australian Intelligence and East Timor Desmond Ball

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2006. 272 pp $27 paperback

B65 Negligent Neighbour New Zealand's Complicity in the Invasion and Occupation of Timor-Leste
by Maire Leadbeater

For almost a quarter century the people of East Timor lived and died under Indonesia's colonial yoke. Against all the odds East Timor's resistance survived. Indonesia relied on western support for both the invasion and occupation of East Timor, but New Zealand's role is often forgotten or mentioned only in passing. Maire Leadbeater is spokesperson for the Auckland-based Indonesia Human Rights Committee, and in the 1990s she was a prominent campaigner for East Timor's independence. Prior to that she took a leading role in New Zealand's anti-nuclear movement. Her writing and lobbying is motivated by the conviction that New Zealand's foreign policy must change direction away from narrow 'self-interest' to principled advocacy for peace and justice.

Negligent Neighbour is a brilliant book that reminds us NZ foreign policy, like that of other Western capitalist nations, is too often on the side of the oppressor rather than the oppressed. -Cameron Walker, Scoop

Maire Leadbeater's "personal recollections and experiences in the East Timor solidarity movement add considerable strength and authenticity to her chronicle, which also draws on declassified official documents, historical research and interviews with key players.... Leadbeater notes how she was shocked to find that ‘almost every new batch of documents revealed new examples of the high-level subterfuge officials relied on as they plotted to help Indonesia deflect international criticism’." - Paul Barber, Tapol

see also

• NZ Herald: Restless ghosts of the Balibo Five

• New Zealand Sunday Star Times review

• Green And Labour Politicians Launch Timor Book

• Interview with Maire Leadbeater on YouTube Part 1, Part 2

Craig Potten, New Zealand. 2007. 280 pp. $35 paperback

Materials from Timor-Leste's Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR)

B68  Introducing...Chega! The Report of Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR)
CAVR, 16 pp. $5

B69 Executive Summary of Chega! The Report of Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) CAVR, 215 pp.  $15

B70 Timor-Leste Women and the Conflict - National Public Hearing April 28-29, 2003 CAVR, 64 pp. $8

B71 Timor-Leste Massacres - National Public Hearing, November 19 -21, 2003  CAVR, 64 pp. $8

B72 Timor-Leste Forced Displacement and Famine - National Public Hearing July 28-29, 2003  CAVR, 64 pp. $8

B62 New Nation: United Nations Peace-Building in East Timor
by Geoff C. Gunn and Reyko Huang

Comprehensive study of UN peacebuilding in East Timor from May 1999 to the end of the UNMISET mission in May 2005. The authors bring a multidisciplinary approach to the subject.

Geoffrey Gunn is Professor of International Relations, Faculty of Economics, Nagasaki University. Reyko Huang is a doctoral student in political science at Columbia University.

A fine study, based upon personal involvement with East Timor, Gunn and Huang give the best account available of the political, linguistic and anthropological differences with which the United Nations wrestled in their attempt to create an independent nation and which are still major factors in Timor-Leste today. -- James Cotton, Professor of Politics, University of New South Wales.

Tipgrafia Macau Hung Heng. 2006. 209 pp. $25 paperback

B63 Complicity in Genocide: Report to the East Timor "Truth Commission" on International Actors
by Geoff C. Gunn

Originally commissioned by East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR). This report focuses on the role of international actors in East Timor's tragedy. Chapters focus on the UN, international diplomacy, weapons supply, the media, church and international solidarity.

Tipgrafia Macau Hung Heng. 2006. 242 pp. $25 paperback

 Also East Timor and the U.N.: The Case for Intervention, By Geoffrey C. Gunn. UN documents, with commentary and call to action. Africa World Press, US, 1997. 240 pp. $20

B57 Last Flight Out of Dili
Memoirs of an Accidental Activist in the Triumph of East Timor
by David Scott

David Scott’s remarkable story of East Timor’s rise from ‘hopeless cause’ to freedom, giving us a unique insight into the people and events that have shaped East Timor’s recent turbulent history.

Australian humanitarian aid leader David Scott was in Dili on 28 November, 1975 at the swearing in of the cabinet of the Democratic Republic of East Timor. Next day he was ordered to leave by the Australian Government who were aware of the impending large-scale Indonesian invasion.

Australia’s role in these terrible events is critically documented. He uses personal correspondence with José Ramos-Horta to give immediacy to the story. His use of recently released Australian Government documents adds to the intrigue of these dramatic events.

‘Last Flight out of Dili ’ is also an account of the hardship, loneliness and dangers that the young José Ramos Horta experienced in his remarkable commitment to keeping East Timor on the United Nations’ agenda for 24 years.

This book is an indictment of the actions of successive Australian governments who abandoned East Timor to years of repression, destruction and mass killings.

Why did successive Australian Governments betray the people of East Timor by supporting the Indonesian occupation? And how was it that ordinary Australian people including non government organizations continued through the long years to support the struggle for independence? David Scott answers these questions so that future generations of East Timorese and Australians will know what really happened and why.

2005. 414 pages, Pluto Press Australia. $35

• Excerpt in New Matilda

• Reviewed in The Age

B56 Songs of East Timor & Oceania
by Canberra Union Voices

A songbook/CD set with scores for four part choir, words, translations and background information for eighteen songs of significance and beauty from Oceania.

There are songs of the East Timorese struggle for self determination since 1973 (including the national anthem), Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander songs, and songs from the Pacific.

The East Timorese community and others gave advice and assistance.

2005. 52 pages, spiral bound with audio CD. $25

B55 A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor
by Joseph Nevins

On August 30, 1999, in a United Nations–sponsored ballot, East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia and for an end to a brutal military occupation. Upon the announcement of the result, Indonesian troops and their paramilitary proxies launched a wave of terror that, over three weeks, resulted in the murder of more than 1,000 people, the rape of untold numbers of women and girls, the razing of 70 percent of the country’s buildings and infrastructure, and the forcible deportation of 250,000 people. In recounting these horrible acts and the preceding events, Joseph Nevins shows that what took place was only the final scene in more than two decades of atrocities. More than 200,000 people, about a third of the population, lost their lives due to Indonesia’s 1975 invasion and subsequent occupation, making the East Timorese case proportionately one of the worst episodes of genocide since World War II.

In A Not-So-Distant Horror, Nevins reveals the international complicity at the center of the East Timor tragedy. In his view, much if not all of the horror that plagued East Timor in 1999 and in the 24 preceding years could have been avoided had countries like Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and especially the United States, not provided Indonesia with valuable political, economic, and military assistance, as well as diplomatic cover. The author explores issues of accountability for East Timor’s plight and probes the meaning of what took place in terms of international institutions and law. Examining issues such as violence, the geography of memory, and social power, Nevins makes clear that the case of East Timor has much to tell us about the contemporary world order.

“Joseph Nevins’s book is a magnificent memorial to the people of East Timor and a damning indictment of international powers, like the United States, that armed, trained, and financed the Indonesian army’s quarter-century reign of terror. Nevins eloquently moves from the horrifying reality of the slaughter on the ground to the international political elite who allowed it to happen, and go unpunished. A Not-So-Distant Horror goes beyond Timor because the bravery and endurance of the people of East Timor are a lesson to us all.” —Amy Goodman, Host and Executive Producer, Democracy Now!

“Joseph Nevins has performed a great service with this book. Among all the massacres that lead politicians to solemnly promise ‘never again’—the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Rwanda—the ruthless Indonesian rule and mass murder that took place in East Timor is almost always ignored. Nevins carefully and vividly places this tragic chain of events on the record, and shows how much of the responsibility for these deaths rests squarely on the United States and its allies.”—Adam Hochschild

“The struggle of the people of East Timor for survival, against incredible odds, is a truly inspiring achievement, one of the most astonishing of recent history. This remarkable book combines depth of knowledge and compassionate understanding, with intimate familiarity from the ground to the historical-documentary record, and the broader geopolitical and cultural-moral context. Joseph Nevins accurately describes the horrors as ‘not-so-distant.’ That is a painfully accurate assessment....”—Noam Chomsky

Joseph Nevins teaches in the Department of Geology and Geography, Vassar College. He is the author of Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary. He is a co-founder of the East Timor Action Network. Under the pen name Matthew Jardine, he is the author of East Timor: Genocide in Paradise and the coauthor of East Timor’s Unfinished Struggle: Inside the Timorese Resistance

Cornell University Press June 2005  288 pages Paperback. $19

Review by John M. Miller in Nonviolent Activist: Close to Home; Review in the Economist; Tapol Bulletin; NZ Herald; Foreign Service Journal; New Zealand International Review; National Catholic Reporter; Annals of the Association of American Geographers

B52 Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the Independence of East Timor
by Clinton Fernandes

The decision ‘to liberate the people of East Timor, to take a stand on behalf of a small fledgling nation that cried out for help’ was trumpeted by Australia's John Howard as one of his governments proudest achievements. But what precisely was Australia’s role in the independence of East Timor? Clinton Fernandes exposes the role of the so-called Jakarta Lobby – Australian officials whose policies supported the Indonesian military regime, and commentators who defend these policies in the public sphere. He argues that under their influence, the Howard government worked assiduously to support Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, trying hard to prevent a ballot on independence. When the situation became untenable and Indonesia was forced to hold the ballot, the government worked to reduce international pressure on Indonesia. Finally he reveals that it was only pressure from activists and the broader public which forced the Howard government to send in a peacekeeping force and reluctantly help East Timor to achieve independence.

Scribe (Australia). 2004. 144 pages. Paperback. $25

‘an important new work . . . It debunks the fondly-held myth that the Government of the time urged and supported an independence referendum. It reminds us that the media must look behind such myth-making, and not forget the same Government has failed to push for the prosecution of the Indonesian perpetrators who are set to continue their handiwork in other areas of the Indonesian achipelago.’ — Peter Cronau, Pacific Journalism Review (see full review)

see Defence accused of attempting to stop critical book

see review from  Green Left Weekly; ZNET, Sydney Morning Herald, API Review of Books

Also by Clinton Fernandes - Reluctant Indonesian: Australia, Indonesia and the Future of West Papua

B88 International Law and the Question of Western Sahara
Karin Arts and Pedro Pinto Leite (eds.)

Invaded and occupied by Morocco just weeks before Indonesia invaded East Timor, the situation in Western Sahara raise highly complex and challenging questions.

A follow-up to a 2006 Conference, this "goes a long way to putting Western Sahara on the geo-political map for those unfamiliar with the issues, and for the rest of us, it explains why this 30 year old conflict is so important, not only to the Sahrawis but to the great powers. It also emphasizes why Western Sahara is not a sideshow to be patronized by the U.N. as it concentrates on other hot spots in the world." (former U.S. Ambassador and former deputy Chairman of the UN Peacekeeping Mission for Western Sahara Frank Ruddy)
The book discusses parallels to East Timor, the status of the territory under international law, the implications of the right to self-determination, respect for human rights and protection against human rights violations, and the lawfulness and/or legitimacy of natural resource exploitation. This is the first collective work in English on the international legal aspects of the question of Western Sahara.

1. The ancient history of Western Sahara and the Spanish colonisation of the territory, by J. Alguero Cuervo
2. Resistance and colonialism: building the Saharawi identity, by T. Shelley
3. The position of the Frente Polisario, by S. Omar
4. Western Sahara and the United Nations norms on self-determination and aggression, by Roger Clark
5. The case of Western Sahara from the perspective of jus cogens, by L. Hannikainen
6. Spain as administering power of Western Sahara by Eduardo Trillo de Martín-Pinillos
7. The meaning of self-determination: "the stealing of the Sahara" redux? by C. Drew

8. East Timor and Western Sahara: a comparative analysis on prospects for self-determination, by Stephen Zunes
9. Self-determination requires more than political independence: recent developments in Timor-Leste, by Charles Scheiner
10. The case of West Papua's sovereignty: the exclusion of West Papua's indigenous peoples from the process of determining their destination, by V. Kaisiepo

11. The European Community and member states' duty of non-recognition under the EC-Morocco Association Agreement: state responsibility and customary international law, by S. Koury
12. The legality of exploring and exploiting mineral resources in Western Sahara, by M. Brus
13. The question of the European Community-Morocco fisheries agreement, by V. Chapaux
14. The Portugal-Australia Timor gap case at the International Court of Justice: aspects of self-determination relevant to the Western Sahara, by S. Stepanova
15. Foreign companies plundering Western Saharan resources: who is involved and what is being done to stop this? by C. Wilson
16. International participation in the phosphate industry in occupied Western Sahara: the local content and global participation, by E. Hagen
17. Geopolitics and realpolitik as impediments to the resolution of conflict and violations of international law: the case of Western Sahara, by Y. Zoubir
18. The Swedish position on Western Sahara and international law, by P. Wrange
19. The self-determination referendum and the role of Spain, by C. Ruiz Miguel
20. Western Sahara: a solution for the conflict on the basis of full respect for international law, by J. Saura Estapa
21. Western Sahara and the UN second decade of decolonisation, by C. Chinkin
22. A testimony of human rights violations against Saharawis, by A. Haidar
23. Time for a new EU policy on Western Sahara, by K. Scheele

 IPJET (International Platform of Jurists for East Timor. 2008. 352 p. $40

B53 Indonesia’s Secret War in Aceh

An eye-opening, firsthand account of Indonesia’s campaign of terror in Aceh.

Acclaimed journalist John Martinkus, whose first book, A Dirty Little War told the definitive story of East Timor’s passage to independence, provides a vivid, eyewitness account of the brutal war in Aceh. Like East Timor, Aceh wants independence but it is paying a terrible price, and since September 11 things have got much worse. This book gets inside a conflict. Includes a final chapter on institutionalized impunity, the legacy of East Timor and the reality of West Papua.

"Martinkus should be saluted for braving brutal consequences to tell us the price of Western, and Australian, tacit acceptance of a rapacious regional power. We can't say we weren't told." -- Antony Loewenstein, Sydney Morning Herald

The book "traces the immediate events that led to this military siege and the Acehnese people’s resistance to it. Martinkus has an easy-to-read style, relaying his personal experiences of travelling throughout Aceh to present an intimate portrayal of the daily plight faced by the Acehnese people." --Jon Lamb, GreenLeft  Weekly

From East Timor to Iraq: An Interview with John Martinkus (January 28, 2005)

Random House (Australia), 352 pp., Paperback $35

Eye on Aceh Pamphlets click here

B67 Verandah of Violence: The Background to the Aceh Problem
Edited by Anthony Reid

This book offers a guide to the complexities of modern Aceh, a land dubbed "The Verandah of Mecca," as it moves toward peace and reconstruction. Verandah of Violence probes the underlying causes of the conflict that has pitted Aceh against Jakarta, explaining why the Acehnese entered the Indonesian republic in 1945 with an unparalleled determination to resist outside domination, and how these attitudes have shaped Aceh's relations with the Indonesian state.

In Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh, the democratization process that began in Indonesia in 1998 encouraged the overt expression of regionalist sentiment and resentment of the military. The surprising extent of both feelings made Aceh, home to a long-standing independence movement, the next potential candidate after East Timor to break away from Indonesia, and led to harsh repressive measures by the military. The tsunami of December 2004 brought incalculable destruction and loss to Aceh. At the same time, it brought international sympathy and aid on an unprecedented scale, along with new pressures for peace. In August 2005, Indonesia and Aceh signed a peace agreement designed to put an end to the conflict. Authors include Isa Sulaiman, Edward Aspinall, William Nessen, Damien Kingsbury and Lesley McCulloch, Kirsten E. Schulze, Aleksius Jemadu.

NUS Press, 2006 423 pp. Paper $30

B48 The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them
by Amy Goodman with David Goodman

The Exception to the Rulers is a fast-paced  expose. Part first-person on-the-ground reporting, part old-fashioned muckraking, the book chronicles the struggles of what Amy Goodman calls, "the silenced majority."

Donate $100 to ETAN and receive a personally signed copy of  Exception to the Rulers as a thank you gift.

"Amy Goodman has taken investigative journalism to new heights." —Noam Chomsky

“A threat to national security.” — The Indonesian military

Hyperion. 2004. 352 pages. Hardcover. $22 Paperback $12

From Publishers Weekly
Journalist and radio host Goodman brings her hard-hitting, no-holds-barred brand of reporting to an array of human rights, government accountability and media responsibility issues, and the result is bracing and timely....  A gadfly's life in these turbulent times is neither restful nor boring, and Goodman's perspective on events like genocidal massacres in East Timor and mainstream coverage of the Jessica Lynch rescue is both important and alarming.... How, she asks, could journalists "embedded" with U.S. troops in Iraq be objective reporters of all that was occurring there, and whose interests were being served? These and other provocative questions power Goodman's stirring call for a democratic media serving a democratic society.

About Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman began her career in community radio in 1985 at Pacifica Radio’s New York Station, WBAI. She produced WBAI’s Evening News for 10 years. In 1990 and 1991, Amy traveled to East Timor to report on the US-backed Indonesian occupation of East Timor. There, she and colleague Allan Nairn witnessed Indonesian soldiers gun down 270 East Timorese. Indonesian soldiers beat Amy and Allan, fracturing Allan’s skull. Their documentary, "Massacre: The Story of East Timor" won numerous awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Armstrong Award, the Radio/Television News Directors Award, as well as awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1996, Amy helped launch Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!.

Order Amy's videos: From Annihilation to a New Nation: The Founding of East Timor and Crashing the Stock Market!

See Amy on her book tour (If you can help leaflet at one of these events contact  etan@etan.org.)

Excerpt from the book: A Sanctuary for Dissent

B54 West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto: Independence, Autonomy or Chaos?
by Peter King

University of NSW Press, 2004,  240 pages $24.95

In the 1950s, the people of West Papua (then Dutch New Guinea) were promised self-determination and eventual independence by their colonial masters. But in 1963 Indonesia took over the territory with the blessing of the United States, the United Nations, and Australia. This book reviews the long guerrilla struggle of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) for a Free Papua and traces the rise of a non-violent independence movement alongside it - led by the Papua Council Presdium - following the fall of Indonesia's military dictator General Suharto in 1998.

Traveling extensively in West Papua and throughout Indonesia, Peter King has interviewed leading figures from the West Papuan Independence movement, church groups, and human rights NGOs. West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto places the current Papuan struggles in a context of failing Indonesian reform.

Peter King is a research associate in government and international relations at the University of Sydney.

"King argues passionately and persuasively that international intervention to resolve Papua’s plight is essential: Australia, the US and other countries must act in concert through the UN once more, as they did in East Timor. Indonesians must be persuaded that their best interests lie not in a ‘security approach’ but in dialogue and negotiation with the Papuans and other disenchanted minorities,"

Read review: West Papua’s long struggle for justice

B43 - East Timor: A Rough Passage to Independence 
by James Dunn

From the days of the colonial Portuguese rule, through the tumultuous years of the Indonesian invasion, to the present day, this book is a disturbing portrayal of the complete failure of the international community to deal with the East Timor situation. With expert analysis and clarity of writing, James Dunn highlights the disturbing gap between the noble rhetoric and the heartless reality of our international commitment and resolve. More than the story of one tiny nation, East Timor reveals a great deal about 21st century world order and its weakness in relation to minorities and small states.

"I can hardly think of anyone other than James Dunn in a position to undertake a 'long duration' analysis of our recent history." - Xanana Gusmão, President, East Timor

For more than 30 years Dunn has worked in international relations, first as a defense analyst specializing in Indonesia, then as an Australian diplomat serving as consul in, then, Portuguese Timor. He has been a foreign affairs columnist, first with The Bulletin, and more recently as a regular columnist with the Fairfax newspapers. In 1999 he was awarded the ACFOA human rights award. In 2002 he was conferred the honor of Grande Official of the Order of Prince Henry by Dr Jorge Sampaio, the President of Portugal. 

Review by Anthony L. Smith Senior Research Fellow, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Hawai’i
Review in Canberra Times

Longueville Press (Australia). 2003. 424 pp. $40

B47 - A Woman of Independence
by Kirsty Sword Gusmão

From her first visit to East Timor in 1990, Kirsty Sword fell in love with the country and its people and became determined to help them in their seemingly hopeless struggle for independence. Little did she know then where her passion for the cause would lead her.

Over the next decade, Kirsty worked as an undercover activist in Jakarta, becoming an increasingly valuable operative within the East Timorese independence movement. In 1994 her work brought her into contact with the jailed leader of the resistance movement, the charismatic Xanana Gusmão. Through their letters, smuggled in and out his prison, they fell in love. This unlikely but remarkable romance, no less passionate for their being so forcibly separated, was further tested when Kirsty was compelled to flee Indonesia one step ahead of its feared intelligence service. It was not until the fall of President Suharto and Xanana’s subsequent release from prison that Kirsty was finally reunited with the revered independence leader.

Working beside Xanana, Kirsty found herself at the very centre of the epic events that saw East Timor freed from Indonesian occupation: the vote for independence, the militia groups’ murderous rampage that followed, the intervention of Australian and international peacekeeping forces, and the slow and painful rebuilding of a devastated country. Today, the former guerrilla commander and the activist live together as president and first lady, with their two children, in a country where fear has been replaced by hope. A Woman of Independence is the story of an incredible love affair, and the passion and courage it takes to free a nation.

Kirsty Sword Gusmão was born in Bendigo, Victoria. She studied Indonesian at university, and later taught English in Jakarta as a cover for her work for the East Timorese resistance movement. She is married to Xanana Gusmão, now the president of East Timor, and has two young children.

Macmillan Australia. November 2003. 321 pp. $35

Reviews: Sydney Morning Herald; Courier Mail; Mercury
Profiles and Interviews of Kirsty Sword Gusmão: A Dutiful Life; Sydney Morning Herald

B22 - Buibere: Voice of East Timorese Women Stories told by 20 women living in East Timor, compiled by Rebecca Winters. Benefits Timor Aid, to assist victims of rape and torture in East Timor. 106 pp. East Timor International Support Centre, Australia. 1999. $12

B40 - The Road to Freedom: 
A Collection of Speeches, Pastoral Letters and Articles from 1997-2001
by Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, SDB 

This collection of Nobel Laureate Bishop Belo's speeches and writings reveal his longing for East Timor to become a free and just society. They deal with reconciliation and refugees, health and human rights, democracy and the church. They are inspirational reading for anyone who shares Belo's belief that a nation might come to enshrine the best human qualities. Color photos.

Caritas Australia and the Centre for Peace and Development Studies - East Timor. 2001. 72 pp. $5 paperback. 

B41 - Fighting Spirit of East Timor: The Life of Martinho da Costa Lopes
by Rowena Lennox

Martinho da Costa Lopes was the first Timorese leader of the East Timorese Catholic Church. After the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, he worked tirelessly to protect human rights. He was the first person to speak out publicly within East Timor about the abuses perpetrated by the occupation forces, which attracted criticism from the Indonesian government. Under pressure from the Vatican, he resigned from the position of Apostolic Administrator and left his country in 1983. He then traveled extensively, speaking and raising awareness about East Timor. He died in Portugal in 1991. His story is a unique and accessible behind-the-scenes account of East Timor.

Pluto Press/Zed. 2001.  $22.50 paperback

B50 The Heaviest Blow -The Catholic Church and the East Timor Issue
by Patrick A. Smythe

The book examines responses within the international Catholic community to the annexation and rule of East Timor by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. Theoretically the Catholic Church is committed to prioritize the needs of the poorest and weakest members of the human family, but the evidence put forth here reveals that there were significant shortcomings in its reaction to the plight of the East Timorese. Despite this, the Church played a crucial role in their eventual achievement of independent nationhood. This study takes a close look at the disposition of the Catholic community in several countries closely involved in the issue of East Timor, including Indonesia, Portugal, Australia, Japan, Britain, the United States, as well as the Vatican.

Patrick A. Smythe is a  Priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds, UK

Lit Verlag 2004 248 Pages $50