Australian troops exposed as occupation force in East Timor

Recent events in East Timor have exposed the role 1,500 Australian troops are playing there as an army of occupation.

In a political maneuver, pro-Australian officials in East Timor have violated the constitution in order to keep Fretilin, the main party that fought for liberation, out of the government. Fretilin leaders called the maneuver a “constitutional coup” and have opened a popular struggle in an attempt to reverse it.

East Timor, which is about the size of Massachusetts, now has a population of almost 1 million. It occupies the eastern half of an island on the southeastern end of the Indonesian archipelago in the Indian Ocean, about 200 miles from Australia’s northern coast.

U.S. progressives know of East Timor mainly for its people’s 23-year-long struggle against a brutal occupation by the Indonesian military regime that started in 1975 and was backed by Washington.

Under the leadership of Fretilin, the people of East Timor had won independence from Portugal earlier in 1975 in the aftermath of a progressive revolution in Portugal itself. Following the U.S.-backed Indonesian invasion later that year, Fretilin organized resistance to the Indonesian occupiers.

The Indonesian military carried out a genocidal policy against the Timorese, killing some 200,000 people.

The military regime was ousted in Indonesia itself in 1998. In August 1999 East Timor voted for independence in a referendum. The Indonesian occupiers had to pull out, but their agents in East Timor—organized in armed militias—fought a last-ditch battle against the poorly armed Timorese people.

At the time, many progressives and even Timorese independence fighters welcomed a United Nations intervention force, led by Australia, hoping it would end the fighting and save lives. But capitalist Australia is a junior partner to U.S. imperialism in the South Pacific/Indian Ocean region, as was shown by Australia’s intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Australia defends and protects the interests of imperialist corporations that exploit the raw materials of nearby South Pacific islands, including the Bougainville autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. In East Timor, this means preventing a really sovereign government from ruling in Dili, the East Timorese capital. It also means facilitating the exploitation of oil fields in the seas between East Timor and Australia by imperialist corporations.

The constitutional coup

Using its military and economic power as leverage, the Australian regime has actively undermined Fretilin’s position. Australian conniving has succeeded in pulling some former Timorese independence leaders into the imperialist orbit. This includes the current president, Jose Ramos-Horta—who has gone so far as to publicly support the U.S. occupation of Iraq—and the person currently named prime minister, Xanana Gusmao. Their break with the independence movement and collaboration with Australia has undermined the sovereignty of the Timorese people.

Fretilin, which led the independence struggle against both the Portuguese and the Indonesians, retains tremendous popular support. Though Fretilin lost the 55-percent parliamentary majority it had won in 2001, it still was the leading party in the parliamentary election this June 30, winning 29 percent of the vote. According to the constitution, Fretilin should have been invited to name the new prime minister and form the government.

Though Fretilin offered to form a broad government representing all parties, Ramos-Horta violated the constitution and asked Gusmao to form the government with an anti-Fretilin coalition.

In an Aug. 6 statement, Fretilin’s Political Commission said Ramos-Horta’s invitation to Gusmao was contrary to the constitution and deprived the Timorese people of their choice. Fretilin said it would take all legal actions necessary to reverse this maneuver. There followed mass demonstrations in and around Dili protesting the new regime, with Fretilin slogans calling Gusmao a traitor. Australian troops intervened against the demonstrations.

In a statement on Aug. 21, Fretilin Sec-retary General Mari Alkatiri denounced the Australian troops occupying his country, saying, “They had better go home because they are not neutral.” Alkatiri, a former prime minister, is considered the political leader most committed to defending Timorese sovereignty. He has fought for a better deal for East Timor regarding the offshore oil and is always demonized by the Australian government and the right-wing media owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Australian troops particularly angered the Timorese when they ripped down Fretilin flags and used them to wipe their backsides. Since the flag is not simply a party banner but that of East Timor’s liberation struggle, Timorese objected angrily to this insult. Australian authorities publicly apologized, blaming “rogue soldiers.” But Fretilin leaders refused to accept Australia’s explanation, showing that the Australian intervention has long outlived its welcome in East Timor.

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