Indonesian Invasion of East Timor 1975 and the Occupation

The Indonesian invasion of East Timor began on 7 December 1975, when Indonesian paratroopers and marines attacked Dili, capital of the former Portuguese colony on the eastern half of the island of Timor. Indonesia annexed the territory the following year and occupied it until 1999. The occupation caused one of the deadliest conflicts of the late 20th century relative to population, through killings, forced displacement and famine.

Background

Portugal had ruled East Timor since the 16th century, while the western half of the island became part of Indonesia. After the Carnation Revolution of April 1974, Lisbon began to withdraw from its colonies, and political parties formed in Timor. The UDT favoured gradual independence linked to Portugal, Fretilin wanted rapid independence and had leftist leaders, and the small Apodeti party supported integration with Indonesia.

Indonesia’s military government under Suharto, which had come to power amid the mass killings of 1965–66, feared a left-wing state on its borders. In August 1975 the UDT staged a coup in Dili; Fretilin won the short civil war that followed, and the Portuguese governor withdrew to the island of Atauro.

Invasion and annexation

Indonesian troops began covert cross-border operations in the autumn of 1975. On 16 October, at the border town of Balibo, five journalists working for Australian television, later known as the Balibo Five, were killed during an Indonesian attack. On 28 November Fretilin declared the independent Democratic Republic of East Timor.

On 6 December US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Jakarta and, as declassified records later showed, raised no objection to an invasion. The next morning Indonesian forces landed at Dili in Operation Seroja (Lotus). Many civilians were killed in the first days, including the Australian journalist Roger East.

The UN Security Council called for Indonesia’s withdrawal on 22 December 1975. Indonesia ignored it and in July 1976 declared East Timor its 27th province. The UN never recognised the annexation, although Australia did so formally at the end of the 1970s.

Occupation and famine

Fretilin’s armed wing, Falintil, withdrew to the mountains, followed by much of the population. Between 1977 and 1979 the Indonesian army carried out “encirclement and annihilation” campaigns with aerial bombing. Civilians who surrendered were held in resettlement camps with little food, and a severe famine followed in 1978–80. Fretilin’s leader Nicolau Lobato was killed in December 1978.

East Timor’s truth commission, known by its Portuguese acronym CAVR, later estimated at least 102,800 conflict-related deaths between 1974 and 1999, around 18,600 of them killings and the rest from hunger and illness. Its upper estimate was about 183,000, out of a 1975 population of roughly 650,000. Xanana Gusmão rebuilt the resistance in the 1980s, until his capture in 1992. Indonesia also invested in roads and schools, moved settlers from other islands into the territory and made Indonesian the language of education and government. Western governments, including the United States, Britain and Australia, maintained close ties with Jakarta and continued to sell it weapons for much of the occupation.

The Santa Cruz massacre

On 12 November 1991 a funeral procession in Dili for a young independence supporter, Sebastião Gomes, turned into a protest. At the Santa Cruz Cemetery Indonesian troops opened fire on the crowd. Indonesia eventually acknowledged around 50 deaths, while East Timorese and other sources put the toll at more than 250.

The British cameraman Max Stahl filmed the shooting and his footage was smuggled abroad, bringing the occupation to world attention. In 1996 Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts towards a just and peaceful solution.

Key people

Suharto (1921–2008) ruled Indonesia from 1967 to 1998 and approved the invasion. He was never tried for abuses in East Timor.

Nicolau Lobato (1946–1978) was Fretilin’s prime minister in 1975 and later its president, leading the resistance until he was killed in combat.

Xanana Gusmão (born 1946) led Falintil from 1981. He was imprisoned in Jakarta after his capture and became East Timor’s first president after independence.

José Ramos-Horta (born 1949) represented the resistance abroad for more than two decades and later served as prime minister and president.

The end of the occupation

The Asian financial crisis and mass protests forced Suharto to resign in May 1998. His successor, B. J. Habibie, offered the East Timorese a choice between autonomy within Indonesia and independence. In the UN-run vote of August 1999, about 78.5 per cent chose independence. Pro-Indonesian militias backed by the army then killed many people and destroyed much of the territory, until an Australian-led international force, INTERFET, arrived in September 1999.

Timeline

• 1974, 25 April: The Carnation Revolution in Portugal opens the way to decolonisation.
• 1975, August: UDT coup and brief civil war, won by Fretilin.
• 1975, 16 October: Five journalists are killed at Balibo.
• 1975, 28 November: Fretilin declares independence.
• 1975, 7 December: Indonesia invades East Timor.
• 1976, 17 July: Indonesia declares East Timor its 27th province.
• 1991, 12 November: The Santa Cruz massacre in Dili.
• 1999, 30 August: East Timorese vote for independence.
• 2002, 20 May: Timor-Leste becomes independent.

Why it matters

The invasion of East Timor shows how Cold War priorities led major powers to accept the annexation of a small territory despite UN resolutions. The long resistance, the Santa Cruz footage and the fall of Suharto in 1998 finally led to the 1999 independence referendum and to the birth of one of the world’s newest states.