Word: indonesia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Asia has a new killing field--East Timor. After a majority of the population voted for independence from Indonesia Aug. 30, pro-Jakarta militiamen rampaged through the territory, killing, burning and looting with impunity. Priests and nuns were among those singled out for execution last week as shops, churches, radio stations and clinics were torched. The Roman Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas said "a large part" of the 40-member Caritas team, "has been murdered." Some 200,000 people--about a quarter of the population--have fled the territory. By the end of the week, the militias seemed to be withdrawing...
...While the government and military leadership in Jakarta have vowed to cooperate with the peacekeeping mission, their previous promise to rein in the militia meant very little on the ground. "There are different power centers competing for control over Indonesia, and all decisions have to be negotiated among them," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. Jakarta has effectively admitted that it's lost control of at least some of its own forces in East Timor. The New York Times reports that General Prabowo Subianto, a close ally of the former dictator Suharto and a rival to current military leader General...
...past, America's East Timor policy has been nothing to be proud of; President Ford tacitly condoned the 1975 invasion and succeeding administrations have pumped Indonesia with military aid in the years since. But thus far in the current crisis, the Clinton administration has done a good job prodding Indonesia along the road to peace in East Timor. Pressure from the U.S., Indonesia's second-largest trading partner after Japan, helped convince Habibie to agree to a referendum in the first place and to permit peacekeepers. It may again prove invaluable as the specifics of the UN mission are worked...
Fear paralyzed much of East Timor during the week after its citizens voted to secede from Indonesia--a 99% turnout of those eligible. With nearly 80% casting ballots in favor of independence on Monday, the East Timorese could at last envision an end to the torturous era in which, since 1975, they have been an unwilling part of Indonesia. But as they waited for the votes to be counted, pro-Jakarta militias violently assumed control of much of the western part of the territory. At least four local United Nations employees were murdered, and six more may have died. Scores...
...means, however, is the dynastic impulse a purely American phenomenon. In Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri led her party to victory in the recent elections. She came out of nowhere. She has no political experience. And her political views are almost unknown. No matter--she is the daughter of Sukarno, founder of the Indonesian state...