Word: timorously
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Sentimentally, of course, Western leaders would like nothing more than to act decisively to end the pogrom in East Timor ? but sentiment seldom trumps geopolitics in the affairs of state, and geopolitics is a cynical business. Back in December 1975, the U.S. gave Indonesia a nod and a wink to proceed with its invasion of the tiny country, whose Portuguese colonial administration had collapsed. In fact, President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had been in Jakarta the day before Indonesian troops went in. With South Vietnam having collapsed only eight months earlier, Washington wasn't about...
After years of stubborn determination, Indonesia now wants to wash its hands of the mess it?s created in East Timor. As the anti-independence militiamen nurtured by elements of the Indonesian army continued their bloody rampage Thursday, Jakarta announced that it would accept having U.N. troops take over peacekeeping duties, a reversal of its strenuous opposition to the presence of any foreign troops. "Indonesia may think handing over the territory to U.N. peacekeepers will get Jakarta off the hook, but the international community has made clear that Indonesia will be held responsible for what happens in East Timor," says...
Indonesia says it will abide by the outcome of Monday?s U.N.-supervised independence referendum in East Timor, but the anti-independence militias nurtured by elements in the Indonesian army appear to have no such intentions. Having vowed to wage a guerrilla war if they lose the referendum, the militias on Tuesday continued attacking election officials and independence activists, and stopped pro-independence voters from leaving the territory. Unhindered by Indonesian police, thugs with guns and machetes simply marched into the airport at Dili, East Timor's capital, seized tickets and ordered those they deemed pro-independence...
...Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 ? with a nod and a wink from Washington, which saw Jakarta as a key anticommunist ally in the region ? and killed as much as one third of its population in 24 years of trying to subdue East Timor. International pressure forced Jakarta to agree to the independence referendum, but the government fears that losing East Timor would simply spur secessionist movements inside Indonesia ? which, after all, is an archipelago of diverse ethnic, religious and linguistic identities united only by the fact that they were once all colonized by the Dutch. With anti...
...much as one third of the population is estimated to have been killed in the Indonesian army?s campaign to forcibly integrate East Timor. International pressure has forced Indonesia to agree to allow the referendum and to abide by its results, but members of the military began organizing the anti-independence militia to intimidate voters soon after the poll was announced. "It?s impossible to tell whether the Indonesian government is being disingenuous with the West about its intentions or whether they?re simply unable to control the military in East Timor," says Calabresi. "But violence is expected to intensify...