Word: timorously
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Strident Demands. Interference was a widespread preoccupation at the conference, however. Laos and Viet Nam excoriated Indonesia for its recently ratified military acquisition of East Timor (TIME, June 14). An increasingly aggressive North Korea issued strident demands that the U.S. withdraw its defense forces from South Korea. Libya's Gaddafi threatened to proclaim a "balance sheet" of member countries that, in his view, "leaned toward imperialism." Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda, usually a quiet-spoken man, gave a shouting, lectern-thumping performance that amounted to a virtual declaration of war against Rhodesia and South Africa. "Assistance is urgently required...
...remote and primitive Portuguese fiefdom of East Timor in the Lesser Sunda islands may have been the closest thing ever to a colony that no one really wanted. Discovered by the Portuguese in the 16th century, it has been theirs by default ever since. A mountainous wilderness roughly half the size of Maryland, East Timor has 650,000 inhabitants, mainly illiterate natives. Colonial mastery, such as it was, lay in the hands of an appointed governor, several hundred Portuguese militiamen, and a handful of coffee planters...
...that began changing rapidly two years ago. The Portuguese, spurred by their anticolonial revolution at home, wanted out. Led at the time by Marxist Premier Vasco Gonçalves, they encouraged formation of a pro-Communist Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin), which finally seized control and began butchering members of opposing political factions. Suddenly, East Timor became a minor source of international tension. Indonesia, which holds adjoining West Timor, professed horror at the thought of a Communist toehold. In turn, that renewed neighboring Australia's suspicion of Indonesia's expansionist ambitions in the region...
...invitation was from the "Provisional Government of East Timor," addressed to 25 ambassadors in Jakarta and a selection of Indonesian and foreign correspondents. The occasion: "To attend the session of the People's Representative Council of East Timor on the exercise of the right of self-determination of the people of East Timor...
Call to Surrender. Lisbon severed diplomatic relations with Jakarta following last week's invasion. It also called upon the United Nations to "protect the territorial integrity" of East Timor. From Jakarta, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Adam Malik coolly dismissed the Portuguese protest, insisting that Indonesian troops had landed in Dili "at the request of the people of East Timor...