A statement on the situation in East Timor by
Communist Workers' Group of NZ. 6 September.
Printed in Class Struggle # 29 September-October 1999
East Timor - A national revolution betrayed.
Long before the overwhelming vote for Independence on August 30, the
explosion of violence in East Timor was totally predictable. Ever
since the leaders of Fretilin were forced to abandon the armed
struggle for the peaceful process of UN negotiated solution, it was
clear Indonesia would not give up without a fight. The Golkar regime
has made no secret of its purpose in bringing in migrants and arming
paramilitaries. It wants to hang on to East Timor because it is has
rich resources. Its illegal occupation has been backed by the US,
Australia and NZ for 24 years. In the face of this reality, to
believe that it was possible to make a peaceful transition to
independence is a criminal betrayal of the people of East Timor.
The only course possible from the start has been for armed struggle
to defend the Independent state of East Timor declared by Fretilin
in 1975. In the crisis today, workers around the world must call for
the right to self-defence of the East Timorese, for a total ban on
any military and political support for the Indonesian regime, and
demand the immediate withdrawal of all Indonesian and paramilitary
forces!
A Victory for the Armed Resistance?
The overwhelming vote for independence has not set off massive
celebrations among the 78.5% who survived 25 years of repression to
vote for separation. Instead it has sparked off a mounting campaign
of terror by the pro-Jakarta armed thugs. Daily reports show the
onesided war being waged by the small minority of
para-militaries against the mass of the population. The thugs are
being allowed free reign to terrorise and murder pro-independence
supporters. Their purpose is to act as stooges for the Indonesian
regime to destabilise the process of secession to keep control
of the territories with the richest resources in the West
adjoining West Timor.
This crisis is the result of nearly 25 years of Indonesian occupation
and resettlement of East Timor. After many years of military
campaigns to immobilise Fretilin, the downfall of Suhato brought the
fate of East Timor to a head. Habibie only agreed to a referendum
under pressure from the US which wants to pose as the champion of
'human rights'.. No doubt Habibie expected that the years of brutal
repression and the policy of resettling migrants in East
Timor would have created a majority for integration with Indonesia.
Now that the result is such a resounding victory for Independence,
Jakarta is attempting to once more hang onto the territory by force.
It will it take the Jakarta regime until November to ratify the vote.
Only then will it agree to the UN implementing the transition to
independence. This gives the pro-Jakarta forces over two months in
which to occupy the key regions they want to retain and to
politically cleanse these regions of Independencias. When the UN
finally gets into gear it will be too late to undo the genocide.
Can the "West" intervene unilaterally? Yes it can. The US
sidestepped the UN last year over Iraq, and more recently in
unleashing the NATO bombing of Kosovo. But will it, and ought it to
intervene? The peacenik left in the West, including Australian and
NZ, was softened up to the point of giving backhanded support to the
US in Kosovo. While opposing NATO's bombing in principle, it blamed
Milosovic's "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo for the intervention. The
effect was to qualify its opposition to NATO by calling for NATO to
turn itself into a 'peacekeeping' force in a soverign territory in
the name of 'human rights'.
The same with East Timor. While preferring a UN solution, most of the
left are calling for immediate action by the US to defend the 'human
rights' of the people of East Timor. This is like calling on the
tiger to guard the calf. The US was the main backer, along with
Australia and NZ, of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in the first
place. It is total hypocrisy or naivety at least to suppose that the
biggest enemy of the declaration of Independence in 1975, can now
turn around and be the defender of 'human rights'.
When East Timor was abandoned by Portugal in 1975, its militant
front, Fretilin, declared an independent state. The US, about to lose
the war in Vietnam, and paranoid about the spread of communism (it
helped Suharto to massacre of 2 milliion communists in Java in 1965)
called on Suharto to suppress the Fretilin. Specifically, the US
wanted to retain acces to the deep sea passage for its submarines to
the south of Timor. It was this support, plus that of Australia and
NZ ( the US's South Pacific lackey states) that gave Indonesia the
backing it needed in the UN to cover up its murderous occupation as
some sort of 'development'.
Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia defended
Indonesia's invasion in the hope of gaining access to oil in the
Timor Gap. Bob Hawke turned a blind eye. So did the former Labor
hero, Gough Whitlam. Each time they covered up the genocide,
Indonesia was able to mount further bloody campaigns. New Zealand
also backed Indonesia, refusing to vote for UN resolutions condemning
the invasion. David Lange, as Prime Minister in the Fourth Labour
Government, rather than vote against Indonesia's occupation of East
Timor, claimed that he could personally persuade Suharto to
'sanitise' its rule of East Timor. The abject failure of Lange's
hyper egoism, along with the illusions of the pacifist left has
contributed to the situation where Fretilin has been militarily
isolated and forced to appeal to UN diplomacy to gain independence.
Armed struggle.
For revolutionaries there was always only one course
of action against Indonesian occupation- that of armed struggle. As
the students in Jakarta have shown over the last two years mass,
direct action comes up against the state forces. The insurgents in
Aceh have learned the same lesson. But this bloody lesson has been
part of the education of the East Timorese for nearly 25 years! It
has cost the lives of more than 200,000 innocent people Now 1000's
of more lives are to be sacrificed to the altar of peaceful
negotiation. There can be no better demonstration of the necessity
of armed struggle than the fight of the East Timorese for their
independence.
For workers around the world there are a number of
actions that can be taken to build international solidarity with the
independence struggle.
First, all workers must defend the right of the masses in East Timor
to defend themselves against the paramilitary terror. No faith in US
intervention or UN safe havens! For material aid to the East Timor
Resistance! For the formation of self-defence committees!
Second, international workers action to blockade Indonesia's armed
forces must be taken. NZ has military cooperation pacts with Jakarta,
and contracts to service military aircraft. NZ workers must impose
bans on any goods and services going to the Indonesian military!
Third, we must call on the workers, students and poor peasants of
Indonesia to demand that Habibie and Sukarnoputrie remove all
Indonesian military and paramilitary forces from East Timor. For the
convocation of a Constituent Assembly! For workers, peasants and
soldiers councils and militia!
Fourth, we must call on Indonesian workers, students and poor
peasants to immediately recognise and demand the right to
self-determination of East Timor and all other independence
movements that have popular backing. Only by doing so will those
seccessionist movements be able to choose freely to secede or stay as
'autonomous' regions of Indonesia. For a Federation of Socialist
Repubics of Indonesia!
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