Word: timorous
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Perhaps no people have suffered so tragically in as much obscurity as the people of East Timor. For more than 20 years since the tiny former Portugese colony was brutally annexed by its neighbor Indonesia, the genocide and error that the East Timorese have endured has been completely ignored by the West. Only recently has the terrible story of this former nation been acknowledged, most notably when two Timorese activists were awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize...
...East Timor was seized by Indonesia in an act of blatant aggression. About 200,000 East Timorese were killed because of the invasion, either in military conflict or as a result of the starvation and disease caused by Indonesia's savage policies. The occupation was greeted not by vociferous protest by the United States, but with tacit assent at the highest levels of the American government. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger '50 assured our ally, Indonesia, that the U.S. would not contest nor attempt to rollback its illegal annexation...
...just look the other way when East Timor was overrun: Military equipment needed to subdue and slaughter Timorese resisters and civilians was readily sold to Indonesia. Diplomatic support for the invasion was also forthcoming. Kissinger, fresh from needlessly prolonging the Vietnam War and encouraging the murderous Christmas bombing of Hanoi, helpfully suggested that the Indonesian cruelty could be construed as containment of communism in East Timor if dissent was raised...
However, the efforts of a small number of activists in the U.S. and abroad have finally succeeded in drawing attention to the plight of the people of East Timor, who are still terrorized by a cruel occupying force. The Nobel Peace Prizes further pushed this issue onto the international agenda; the U.S. media has been paying more attention to East Timor lately as well. In the last few weeks, at least two editorials about East Timor have appeared on the oped page of The New York Times, including one yesterday by Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Catholic bishop of East Timor...
OSLO, Norway: Two men struggling for peace in Indonesian-occupied East Timor received the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo's City Hall Tuesday. Angry Indonesian representatives boycotted the ceremony. Exiled Timorese activist Jose Ramos Horta shared the honor with Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. "I firmly believe that I am here essentially as the voice of the voiceless people of East Timor," said Belo in his acceptance speech. "And what the people want is peace. An end to violence and the respect for their human rights." The Indonesian government, which invaded East Timor...