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When I visited East Timor in about 1973 it was a Portuguese protectorate or colony.
There was a revolution in Portugal in 1974 and the subsequent Portuguese government virtually threw the country's overseas colonies (Angola, Mozambique and East Timor) onto their own resources.
This could be called the first betrayal.
Not surprisingly there was a struggle for power within each of the ex-colonies. The detailed history of this period of East Timor's history can be read elsewhere, (see Wikipedia for example), however, I believe a fair and very short summary is as follows:
Of course Indonesia was the primary culprit in the East Timorese genocide. The Indonesian treatment of West Papua (Irian Jaya in Bahasa Indonesia) is possibly just as bloody and criminal as their treatment of East Timor. The West, and the rest of the world, hears very little about West Papua because the Indonesian government hides their crimes in that state to the best of their ability (and The West seems not to be very interested anyway).
I have written about Australia's specific (and repeated) involvement in the betrayal of East Timor's on another page on this site. East Timor, or Portuguese Timor as it was then, was one of Australia's closest neighbours. It is a matter deserving of national shame.
However, Australia redeemed itself to some extent by sending troops to East Timor to restore order in 1999 following Indonesia's granting of self determination under President Habibie.
More informationDeath of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy; a movie exposing the world's shame over East Timor by John Pilger.Indonesian invasion of East Timor; Wikipedia. Indonesian occupation of East Timor; Wikipedia. Australia and the Indonesian occupation of East Timor; Wikipedia. 1999 East Timorese crisis; Wikipedia. Australia's shame over East Timor; Sydney Morning Herald. |
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