Struggle for Timor has petered out

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 6

Struggle for Timor has petered out

By

HARISH CHANDOCH

of the Observer Foreign' News Service Singapore' The armed fight for the independence of the former, Portuguese colony of East' Timor has petered out. The I Revolutionary Front for the! Independence of Timor! (Fretilin), which was waging! that fight, has now run out of not only arms and amniu- ! nition but also food, and an, overwhelming majority of | East Timorese have now accepted its integration with I Indonesia. This was the impression j of a group of ambassadors, and foreign journalists who ■ travelled in East Timor fori three days last month at the invitation of the Indonesian! Foreign Minister (Dr Moch- i tar Kusumaatmadja). ■Thousands who had taken to the mountains with the Fretilin forces are now coming down to rehabilitation centres opened by the Indonesian Government. They! are sick, starved, and with-1 out clothes. At these centres, they are! treated and given food,! clothing, and subsistence fori a three-month period. Theni some of them are employed j in new construction projects, | and others who want to go back to agriculture are given, two hectates of land for ■ growing rice and one fori maize to settle down on. At Remisiu rehabilitation! centre in the mountains believed to be in the Fretilin area, the party of foreign observers saw about 45001 people who had come from | the neighbouring hilltops for; rehabilitation. They were | small and emac'ated. Naked ; children showed their ribs as! a result of prolonged malnu-l, trition and hunger. The relatively fit had lined, up to welcome the visitors. : Others, including a number .< of small children and some , i women lay under newly-j 1 built grass huts listless and': semi-naked. ; The isolated island terri- ■ tory had suffered brutal Por- < tuguese rule for 500 years < until the 1975 coup in Lis- l bon. On December 7, 1975, 1 the forces of four political i parties — the Uniao De-'!

mocratica Timorese (U.D.1.), j the Associacao Popular Democratica de Timor (Apodeti), the Klibur Oan Timor Aswain (K.0.T.A.), which means “Son of the Warriors.” and the Trabalhista (Labour Party) — with the help of Indonesian forces, captured the capital city of Dili from the forces of Fretilin, which had unilaterally declared independence on November 28, 1975. and had held the city since August. Acting on an appeal from the four parties, on July 17, 1976, Indonesia promulgated a law declaring East Timor as its 1 a province. Remnants of Fretilin are still in the mountains, but the Indonesian forces are not attacking them there. Indonesia says they will realise the folly of wishing to create an independent country out of a part of a very backward and poor island sitting right in the middle of Indonesia. They will then come out and join their 1 brethren who asked for in-) tegiation with Indonesia. In fact, the security threat in East Timor is said to have recoiled so much that the commander of the Indonesian forces, BrigadierGtnera' Dading Kalbuadi, now wants to take his men back to his base in Bali, some 1300 km to the west. By the end of the year the Indonesian Government might allow him to do so. The Foreign Minister said it was not the intention of his Gcvernment to maintain troops in East Timor until the last Fretilin fighter surrendered. The task of looking after the security of villages is being given to the village militia which has been set up in almost all rural areas of Indonesia. Portugal’s policy in the 15,600 sq.km territory, with) its 600,000 people, was one of exploitation and brutality. | Cattle were taxed, people: were taxed — an annual levy of 300 escudos (then; about $10) irrespective of) whether they were employed j or not. The per capita in-) come, according to the Por ! tuguese Banco Nacional) Ultramarino. of East Timorese (living in cities) was i S4O.