Balibo declaration

Indonesia (green) and East Timor (orange)

In the Balibo Declaration of November 30, 1975 , several East Timorese political leaders called for Indonesia's intervention in the neighboring country. Indonesia used the declaration to legitimize the open occupation of East Timor.

background

See also : End of Portuguese rule on Timor

From 1974 the Portuguese Timor colony was being prepared for independence. At the beginning of 1975 it became apparent that the left-wing FRETILIN had the greatest support among the population and would probably provide the government of the independent East Timor. The conservative UDT therefore attempted to take power with a coup on August 11, also because the Indonesian military intelligence service BAKIN fueled the conflict between the two largest parties in East Timor and the UDT warned against an alleged communist coup by FRETILIN. The result of the UDT putsch was a three-week civil war , from which FRETILIN emerged victorious. Around 10,000 supporters of the UDT and the small APODETI parties allied with itand KOTA fled to neighboring Indonesian West Timor . The number of 40,000 refugees spread by Indonesia is widely viewed as far too high.

After the UDT's defeat in September, Indonesia began to invade and occupy the border areas of East Timor using soldiers disguised as UDT fighters. Five Western journalists who witnessed the invasion in Balibo (the so-called Balibo Five ) were murdered by Indonesian soldiers on October 16. In the hope of international support, FRETILIN unilaterally proclaimed the independence of East Timor on November 28th .

The declaration

Indonesia responded to the declaration of independence by reporting that representatives of the UDT, APODETI, KOTA and the Partido Trabalhista (PT) signed a declaration in the border town of Balibo on November 30, calling on Indonesia to intervene in East Timor.

The signatories claimed that the unilateral declaration of independence by FRETILIN, which was not recognized by Portugal, was not in keeping with the will of the East Timorese people, whom they claimed to be representatives. Therefore, they rejected the declaration of independence as a violation of the "principles of decolonization". FRETILIN would refuse to find a peaceful solution and negotiations, which would force the other parties to act. After 400 years of violent separation of ties between the East Timorese and the Indonesian people through “blood, identity, ethnicity and moral culture” by the colonial power Portugal, it is now time to reestablish the strong ties. "In the name of Almighty God" the signatories declared the independence of Portuguese Timor from Portugal and the integration of the country into Indonesia, which corresponds to the true wishes of the people. Finally, the signatories called on the Indonesian government to take immediate action to protect the lives of "the people who now see themselves as Indonesians". They are still suffering from the "terror and fascist methods of the FRETILIN gang", which is armed and supported by the Portuguese government.

The declaration was signed by Francisco Lopes da Cruz and Domingos de Oliveira from UDT, Guilherme Gonçalves and Alexandrino Borromeo from APODETI, José Martins from KOTA and Domingos da Conceição Pereira from PT.

The declaration was drawn up by Louis Taolin (agent of the Indonesian military intelligence service Bakin) and Aloysius Sugiyanto (colonel of the Opsus special unit) and was not signed in Balibo, but on the western Indonesian island of Bali . The East Timorese signatories later stated that they had been practically prisoners of the Indonesian military since fleeing to West Timor and that the signing took place under pressure.

The FRETILIN leader Xanana Gusmão later called the paper the "Balibohong Declaration", a play on words with the Indonesian word for "lie".

consequences

On December 7th, Indonesia began the open invasion of East Timor . Troops landed in the state capital Dili . The FRETILIN government had to withdraw into the mountains and began a guerrilla war against the occupiers with its military arm, the FALINTIL . On December 16, the United Nations Security Council dealt with the situation in East Timor. Indonesia presented Guilherme Gonçalves, José Martins and Mario Carrascalão , who appeared as supporters of the invasion. During a tour of Europe in April 1976, Martins fled and revoked his statements in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim . He said he had signed the Balibo Declaration under pressure and that the number of civil war refugees spread from Indonesia was far too high.

On July 17th, Indonesia declared the annexation of East Timor as the 27th province, but this was not recognized internationally. It was only in 1999 that the East Timorese were able to decide on the status of their country in a referendum . The clear majority voted for independence, to which the country was adopted on May 20, 2002 after a last wave of violence and three years of UN administration . According to estimates by the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of East Timor (CAVR), the Indonesian invasion and occupation cost at least 183,000 lives.

Web links

• Heike Krieger: East Timor and the International Community: Basic Documents , pp. 40–41, 1997, ISBN 978-0-521-58134-9 .
• Text of the Balibo Declaration (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Frédéric B. Durand: History of Timor-Leste , pp. 105-106, ISBN 978-616-215-124-8 .
2. ^ Bill Nicol: Timor: A Nation Reborn. Equinox Publishing, 2002 limited preview in Google Book Search.
3. ↑ "Chapter 7.3 Forced Displacement and Famine" (PDF; 1.3 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
4. ^ ^{A b} Heike Krieger: East Timor and the International Community: Basic Documents , 1997, ISBN 978-0-521-58134-9 .
5. ^ Bill Nicol: Timor: A Nation Reborn. Equinox Publishing, 2002, p. 308 limited preview in Google Book search.
6. ^ David Hicks: Rhetoric and the Decolonization and Recolonization of East Timor. Routledge, 2015, limited preview in Google Book Search.
7. ↑ "Part 3: The History of the Conflict" (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
8. ^ East Timor Government: History
9. ↑ José Ramos-Horta : Funu: The Unfinished Saga of East Timor , pp. 186 ff., 1987, ISBN 978-0-932415-15-8 .
10. ↑ Security Council Official Records: 1915th meeting ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 8 ff., Accessed on November 24, 2017.