Word: indonesian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Yesterday Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said he would allow United Nations peacekeeping forces to enter East Timor, the Indonesian province that has been engulfed in chaos since voting overwhelmingly for independence in an Aug. 30 referendum. Habibie's announcement, in a nationally televised address, is a crucial step toward peace in East Timor and a welcome reversal of Indonesia's previous opposition to foreign intervention. What is most important now is that the UN and the international community quickly take Habibie up on his offer...
Indonesia's own attempts to restore order to East Timor, a small territory north of Australia it invaded in 1975, have failed dismally. The anti-independence militias behind most of the violence have close ties to the Indonesian military, and additional Indonesian soldiers sent to East Timor last week reportedly have turned a blind eye to militia violence. As a result, hundreds of East Timorese have been killed over the last week. Thousands have been driven from their homes. Dili, East Timor's capital, is a ghost town...
...outside world for help. But Western governments have yet to reach a consensus on deploying force. If the U.N. decides to send in armed peacekeepers, they are not likely to arrive until later this fall. That leaves the job of restraining the militias in the hands of Indonesian forces. They have shown little inclination to stop the killing. "I don't think it would be difficult for the police to disarm the militias, but their hearts aren't in it," says a Western official. "[The militias] were brought in by the military, and there are emotional attachments preventing [the police...
...little early for sighs of relief over the fate of East Timor. Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas met with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York Monday to negotiate the terms of a peacekeeping mission to East Timor. But although President B. J. Habibie caved in under mounting international pressure Sunday and accepted the principle of a peacekeeping mission, perils aplenty await both the Timorese and their prospective liberators. For one thing, nobody knows quite who is in charge in Jakarta these days. That the president's announcement was immediately endorsed by the all-powerful military is certainly encouraging...
...question may be the intentions of the Indonesian military inside East Timor. Habibie's announcement stressed that Indonesia plans to keep its troops there after peacekeepers arrive, even though the army's top commanders acknowledge that they've lost control of rogue elements in their ranks. Presumably those elements aren't going to turn into Boy Scouts when a battalion of Australian troops comes marching down the road. So this particular "peacekeeping" operation may end up looking more like a counterinsurgency campaign. Joining the Aussies will be British Gurkhas and troops from Malaysia, New Zealand, France, Thailand, the Philippines...