Word: timorously
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...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...
...government has not yet admitted the extent of its involvement in allowing Indonesia to ravage its neighbor nor issued a coherent policy for moving East Timor back to self-determination. In fact, Indonesia is an even closer ally to the U.S. today because of its thriving economy and open markets than it was under Ford's tenure. The U.S. should be one of the leaders in exerting world pressure on Indonesia, even if only for moral reasons...
...East Timor's situation seems so hopeless now that it is difficult to determine what the U.S. could or should do. But Bishop Belo has pointed the way to a sensible beginning. In his editorial, he called for "the release of East Timorese political prisoners, a step that could renew hopes for peace and and help the next round of United Nations-sponsored talks...