Behind Australia’s intervention in East Timor

An Australian-led military intervention has put East Timor back in media headlines four years after its independence. More than 2,500 troops and police—some 1,500 from Australia, and the rest from New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal—had landed in Dili, the capital of East Timor, by June 5.

The deployment of these troops and police follows a rebellion, begun in March by about one-third of the 1,800 troops in the Timorese armed forces, and a week of street fighting in May among groups in Dili called “gangs” in the big-business media. Tens of thousands of Timorese have fled Dili neighborhoods where homes have burned and the fighting continues.

Although the Timorese government officially invited Australia’s intervention, there are three reasons many suspect the Australian government of having a role in provoking the crisis that destabilized East Timor.

It only took two days after the invitation for the Australian government to land 1,500 troops in Dili. Such a deployment requires preparation.

The nominal leader of the rebellious Timorese troops, Maj. Alfredo Alves Reinado, received training in Canberra, Australia, just three months before the military intervention.

And East Timor and Australia have been embroiled in negotiations over exploiting the substantial oil and gas reserves located in the ocean between the two countries, in an area known as the Timor Gap.

Bloody road to independence

East Timor, about the size of Massa chusetts and with a population of about 900,000, occupies the eastern half of an island on the southeastern end of the Indonesian archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It lies about 200 miles from Australia’s northern coast.

The Timorese people’s fate has been complicated by the role of Australia and Indonesia, which are the two regional powers; of Portugal, which is the former colonial power; and of U.S. imperialism, a long-time sponsor of the bloody Indo nesian military.

After 400 years as a Portuguese colony, East Timor was on the verge of independence in 1975. One year earlier, national liberation wars in Portugal’s African colonies had opened up a revolution in Portugal itself against the fascist colonial regime there. By 1975, the new Portuguese government was reaching agreements with all the national liberation movements in the colonies, on the basis of self-determination, in order to end fighting. These negotiations included an agreement with Fretilin, the national liberation movement in East Timor.

U.S. strategists, however, were concerned that Fretilin might usher in a pro-socialist country: a “Cuba in the Indian Ocean.”

In December 1975, when Portugal announced it would end its colonial rule over East Timor, the Indonesian regime—led by the military dictator Suharto—prepared for an invasion of East Timor.

During a meeting in Jakarta just before the invasion, Suharto told U.S. President Gerald Ford and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about his plans to take over East Timor.

“We will understand and will not press you on the issue,” Ford replied, according to U.S. government documents. Kissinger added, “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.”

The ensuing invasion and 24-year-long occupation cost the lives of as many as 200,000 East Timorese—about one-third of the population. But the U.S. government remained Indonesia’s staunch ally, valuing its strategic alliance with the anti-communist Suharto regime over the lives of the Timorese people. Fretilin waged a heroic struggle, but took heavy losses.

When the Suharto government was fin ally removed in Indonesia in 1998, the Timorese organized a referendum and voted overwhelmingly for independence. In response, pro-Indonesian militia threat ened a bloodbath. The Timorese groups requested assistance from Austra lia and other countries. On May 20, 2002, the Timorese finally established a new, independent East Timor.

Oil and the current crisis

Today, East Timor—one of the poorest countries in the world—expects a potential income of as much as $25 billion from its oil and gas deposits over the next 20 years—if it isn’t all taken away from them.

In the past year, the Australian government has continually pressured Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to sign away rights to these resources. Under international boundary law, 80 percent of the oil and gas are under Timorese waters. Australia has insisted on a 50-50 split.

Australia has also lined up internationally with U.S. and British imperialism, sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. In pursuit of its own economic interests, Australian troops have also gone into Papua New Guinea.

Even though Australian military ships were in Timor’s waters during Fretilin’s congress this May 17-19, and Australia has been sharply critical of Alkatiri, the former liberation front again selected him as its leader. Fretilin, which won 57 percent of the vote in the 2001 election, is by far the most popular party. As the ruling party, it had also selected Alkatiri as prime minister in 2002.

Alkatiri has invited a few dozen Cuban doctors and sent a few Timorese to Cuba to study medicine. These small attempts to improve life for the Timorese have aroused charges from Major Reinado and others that Alkatiri is a “communist.” The Australian government and media call him “incompetent.”

The truth is he has been trying to get a better cut for Timor from the oil and gas income.

Some other Timorese political leaders who are opponents of Alkatiri—such as President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta—also have roots in the independence movement. But Alkatiri has the support of Fretilin and has said he would mobilize 100,000 supporters if he is deposed. This may be the only reason he has survived this long.

In March, some 600 Timorese soldiers went on strike, claiming discrimination because they were from the western part of the country. They speak the same language and share the same religion as people in the eastern part. The most important difference is that people from the western part are believed to have collaborated more with the Indonesian occupation. Alkatiri fired the soldiers, whereupon they rebelled.