On October 6 in New York, Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas met for the first time with representatives of the East Timorese resistance: Jose Ramos Horta of the National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM), Joao Carrascalao of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and Jose Luis Guterres of Fretilin. MAX LANE explains the background.
Since the November 12, 1991, massacre by Indonesian troops of more than 200 people carrying out a peaceful demonstration as part of the East Timorese people's struggle for freedom, international criticism of the Suharto government has steadily increased.
Spurred by a spontaneous reaction of horror in many countries, international campaigning has forced a number of governments to put pressure on the dictatorship. There are now East Timor campaigns in most European countries as well as the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. In May was held the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) conference in Manila.
Strong resolutions against Indonesia have been passed in the European parliament. In the 1993 UN Decolonisation Committee, a resolution strongly critical of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor was also pushed through. The US Congress passed a resolution against the sale of light arms to Indonesia. A significant number of US members of Congress have signed letters of concern regarding East Timor.
The resilience of the struggle in East Timor and the solidarity campaigning around the world ensure that East Timor remains a "problem" for the Suharto dictatorship. Because of the extremely close political ties between Canberra and Jakarta, the campaign against the Indonesian occupation is also a problem for the Keating-Evans Labor government.
Both governments are now looking for "solutions to the East Timor problem", that is, a way to defuse and demobilise the international campaigns.
Discussions
The Suharto government has been engaged in a range of discussions meant to give the impression that it is considering a change of policy. There has been increasing talk of the need "to give special treatment to the province".
According to the October 6 Far Eastern Economic Review, a special report of an Indonesian armed forces team recommends changes to existing practice in East Timor. The governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares, has also called for East Timor being made a "special region".
Even Major General Adang Ruchiatna, commander of Region IX, which includes East Timor, attended the recent launching of a new book, The Political Economy of East Timorese Development, which criticises current development policies for being too top-down and over-centralised.
This talk is parallelled internationally by Jakarta's attempts to build links with East Timorese exiles. On October 1, a meeting in London between East Timorese working with the Jakarta government and a group of East Timorese led by expelled former Fretilin leader Abilio Araujo issued a statement.
It expressed "appreciation and encouragement of the Government of Indonesia for its concrete efforts to bring about the development of East Timor as well as its efforts to take legal measures against human rights violation in East Timor", and called on the Indonesian government to give "special consideration to the administration of East Timor given its distinct historical background"; "to consider the special situation of East Timorese in custody and to take further appropriate measures aimed at their release"; to "continue to implement the gradual reduction of troops in east Timor"; and "to introduce in the schools all disciplines that contribute to safeguarding the cultural heritage of the people of East Timor".
The meeting projected itself as part of the implementation of an Indonesian undertaking to facilitate talks with a wide range of East Timorese. It called for more talks with other East Timorese, but worded the statement in a way intended to isolate Fretilin, which has played the major role in fighting the Indonesian occupation.
The increased discussion of so-called "special treatment" and the London agreement are aimed at convincing a sufficient section of international public opinion that international pressure and public campaigning are no longer necessary.
Realities
In an interview on October 1 in East Timor, however, Bishop Belo, head of the East Timorese Catholic Church, gave a somewhat more realistic picture of the "special treatment" that is being given to East Timor.
Belo recounted to journalist Edward Olsen-Hafstead the intensive surveillance by military intelligence, sometimes resulting in him being unable to communicate with his parishioners. The church has recently established a Justice and Peace Commission but, according to Belo, the military are opposed to it. "According to them it is a political movement of the resistance."
Belo himself has also argued for special status for East Timor and recently wrote to Jakarta on this issue. He told Olsen-Hafstead that he had already received a reply. "They reject all six points of my letter. They don't accept a referendum. They don't accept special status. And they don't accept me as an intermediary for peace talks because, according to them, I am openly with Fretilin."
Ali Alatas has also made it clear that he thinks East Timor already has more autonomy than any other "Indonesian province".
Australian tactics
Opposition in Australia to the Indonesian occupation has been on the increase, especially in the wake of the John Pilger film Death of a Nation. The East Timorese community is also increasingly effective in highlighting the issue.
This pressure has made East Timor just as much a "problem" for Canberra as it is for Jakarta. Evans claims that the integration of East Timor into Indonesia is "irrevocable" and that all talk of independence is "unrealistic".
However, the increasing pressure is forcing Evans and the government to try to appear to be doing something. In April, Evans called for a reduction of Indonesian troops in East Timor and, echoing the discussions in Jakarta, started to talk about autonomy.
At the ALP National Conference, the government's public relations strategy was reflected in a so-called consensus resolution. This amounted to nothing more than a restatement of concern about the initial annexation without an act of self-determination, the 1975 invasion, human rights violations and the need for ongoing international talks. Predictably, it made no mention of any real act of self-determination or of any plan to apply pressure on Indonesia in that direction.
In fact, in an ABC interview after the conference, Evans stated that the resolution "doesn't backtrack in any way in Australia's recognition of the de jure sovereignty of Indonesia over East Timor". Later he added: "I don't think there is anything fundamentally new in the approach that we have adopted".
The only thing new is that the pressure was much greater and therefore the ALP had to think about shoring up its image.
The running on the resolution was left to ALP left spokespersons such as Victorian MP Lindsay Tanner. Tanner went on ABC radio on September 26 with Evans to defend the resolution.
Much of the grassroots campaigning in Australia has been taking place outside the ALP and has been aiming its fire at the ALP, especially at Evans. The passing of this resolution at the ALP conference, which goes no further than Evans' routine diplomatic "expressions of concern" about human rights violations, is intended to weaken or divide public opinion and the solidarity movement or at least divert the attacks from the ALP government and Evans' policy.
But Evans' own words — "there is nothing new in what we have adopted" — reflects the real nature of current Australian foreign policy. The real content can be gauged from defence minister Robert Ray's July visit to Jakarta, where he indicated Australia's willingness to fill the gap left by the US withdrawal of light arms. He proposed joint manufacture with Indonesia. Asked about the human rights implications, he said that Indonesia's human rights record was improving.
This has also been the thrust of Evans' response to Amnesty International's report on human rights in Indonesia. Released on September 28, it documented banning of newspapers, imprisonment of labour leaders, torture of student activists and the breaking-up of political meetings, the jailing of East Timorese demonstrators and plans for a new decree that would severely tighten government controls over non-government community organisations. Echoing Ray's statement, Evans attacked Amnesty for issuing a "campaign report".