“Technically they did get independence finally. But that’s after near genocide, which was backed by the United States overwhelmingly—the US and Britain were primarily responsible for it. It’s one of the worst crimes of the late twentieth century.
Right through 1999, Britain and the United States knew perfectly well that the Indonesian forces they had armed and trained were carrying out major atrocities.” Noam Chomsky, Professor, MIT
| On
December 7, 1975, the Indonesian military invaded the nearby island
of East Timor. Just 2 days before the invasion, U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had visited Indonesia. They were concerned that the use of U.S. arms in the invasion could create problems at home, but decided that they could construe the action as defensive. Between 1975 and 1999, the Indonesian military killed 200,000 East Timorese, one-third of the population of East Timor. Why did the United States continually provide support to Indonesia? |
|
The
Santa Cruz Massacre |
