Word: indonesia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
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...
...push hard for international peacekeepers. And it seems inevitable that American logistics expertise will gird the multinational force that descends on East Timor. The peacekeeping agreement came after a week of difficult diplomacy, led by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan publicly tried to persuade Indonesia to invite an international peacekeeping force. Privately, he pushed other nations to issue an ultimatum to Jakarta: permit such a force or it will be sent in uninvited. A failure to permit peacekeepers into a killing zone like East Timor, he warned Jakarta, was perilously close to a crime against humanity. When Habibie called...
...wanted continued ties with Jakarta began to organize and acquire guns. Even before the vote, independence campaigners were intimidated and dozens killed. Although the militias were clearly supported by elements of the Indonesian armed forces, the international community in May agreed to entrust security during the referendum period to Indonesia. It was a fatal misjudgment, as the bloodbath showed. Why the killing? There were all kinds of theories. Perhaps the military, angered at having to give up territory it had fought so hard to pacify, wanted to get a few last licks in before pulling out. The military leadership...
...16th century for its sandalwood, and predominantly Catholic, it was invaded by Indonesian troops in December 1975 with the tacit consent of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Jakarta's forces met bitter resistance--some 200,000 East Timorese died as a result of the occupation, and Indonesia's annexation of East Timor was never recognized...
...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...