Word: timorously
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...parallel between East Timor and Aceh isn't exact. East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, enjoyed a brief period of self-determination before it was invaded and absorbed by Indonesia in 1975. It never really cohered to the country under former President Suharto, who ordered the invasion. Aceh, in contrast?like the rest of post-independence Indonesia?had been part of the former Dutch East Indies, and has since been a major contributor to the national wealth by producing billions of dollars worth of liquefied natural...
...East Timor's tragedy was touched off when Suharto successor B.J. Habibie off-ered its people a referendum on whether they wanted to split from Indonesia. They voted yes, but Habibie wasn't in control of his own military. The men in uniform had spent two decades trying to get East Timorese to accept their place within Indonesia, and many felt betrayed. The carnage was their retaliation...
...thing that isn't being given a chance in Aceh is peace. In 1999 and 2000, a group called the Information Center for a Referendum in Aceh (sira) organized giant rallies calling on Jakarta to hold an East Timor-type referendum on independence for the province. sira was led by former student Muhammad Nazar, who was tried for sedition because of the rallies and given a 10-month jail sentence last month. "The violence in Aceh is increasing as part of a military and police effort to undermine the negotiating process," says Nazar, whose current residence is the Banda Aceh...
...East Timor proved, the Indonesian military isn't good at winning hearts and minds. Over the past two years GAM has fast expanded its support base among a population jaded by decades of military repression and Jakarta's exploitation of the province's natural resources. Talks in Geneva last June between GAM's leadership-in-exile in Sweden and the government brought about a cease-fire arrangement known as a "humanitarian pause," which has been extended more than once. But the military believe that the frequently breached cease-fires have only given GAM room to strengthen its position...
...declared itself opposed to armed struggle and favors some form of autonomy within Indonesia. Jakarta has raised a force of several hundred Acehnese under the MP-GAM banner, paying them to operate alongside the security forces? a setup very reminiscent of the militias that wreaked such havoc in East Timor...