Operation Skylight
The operation Skylight (also Movement Skylight ) was a Indonesian military operation with the aim of guiding the East Timorese eliminate resistance to the Indonesian occupation and move the many with her remaining civilians to surrender. Operations planning in May 1978 was taken over by Lieutenant General Mohammad Yusuf , Commander in Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces , who had also taken personal control of the conquest of the former colony of Portuguese Timor , which had been ongoing since 1975 .
Happenings
On December 7, 1975, Indonesia began Operation Seroja to openly occupy East Timor. The left-wing FRETILIN party and its military arm, the FALINTIL , resisted in a guerrilla war .
From the end of September to October 1978, Alarico Fernandes , who was responsible for the resistance broadcaster Radio Ma Brille , sent a series of coded radio messages. These messages were broadcast under the name "Saturno". A group of Australian activists in Sydney and Darwin intercepted the news and passed it on to FRETILIN members in exile for decryption. The texts were kept secret until the defection from Fernandes to the Indonesians became known in early December. The news described Operation Skylight, which was intended to eliminate resistance leader Nicolau Lobato and other named members of the FRETILIN Central Committee (CCF). Part of the news was published in English in the Australian solidarity magazine East Timor News and Fernades was accused of treason. Fernandes is said to have revealed positions of resistance to the invaders in these coded messages. Fernandes was sometimes accused of having planned Operation Skylight himself and of having made a “movement” out of it in order to weaken FRETILIN. Such an interpretation was represented, for example, by the resistance leader Xanana Gusmão when he was questioned by the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of East Timor (CAVR).
Resistance centers such as at Matebian or in Ermera and Suai were bombed by the Indonesian air force. After Fernandes, four more members of the CCF surrendered to Remexio by the end of the year . The radio station that Fernandes had previously operated for FRETILIN fell into Indonesian hands. On December 31, Nicolau Lobato was killed in a fight with the Indonesians. In the later years, allegations were made that Fernandes helped track down Lobato. But doubts about this point also exist within the resistance solidarity movement. Other FRETILIN leaders were captured or surrendered in 1979. Despite the promised amnesty, many of them disappeared, such as Sera Key .
On March 26, 1979, Operation Seroja was concluded and East Timor was declared pacified territory. The armed resistance took years to revive. To date, it is unclear when Fernandes started working for the Indonesians and to what extent he contributed to their success. It is believed to have been under Indonesian control from September 1978 when the Saturno news began. East Timor News doubts this but admits direct contact between Fernandes and the Indonesians in late November. The Indonesians give December 2nd as the day of Fernandes' arrest, a Reuters report incorrectly states December 3rd.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g “Part 3: The History of the Conflict”, p. 75 ff. (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the “Chega!” Report of the CAVR (English).
- ↑ a b c d Timor Archives: Operation Skylight, 1978: Unresolved questions , June 26, 2020 , accessed on June 28, 2020.
- ↑ Angelo Novo's Page: The struggle of the east-timorese