Timor is an island nation located at the southeastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. No larger than the state of Connecticut in the U.S.A. it has over 700,000 people. Just North of Australia, the island was colonized by the Portuguese in 1520. Over the next two centuries both the Dutch and the Portuguese claimed the island as their own. Eventually the island was divided with the Dutch taking the Western half and Portugal taking the Eastern half. East Timor remained a colony of Portugal for over four centuries until 1974.

The population of East Timor as of 1975 was just under 700,000 people. Of that, 97% were natives of the island, while the Chinese made up 2% and the Portuguese made up the rest of the population. The island has a mountain range that runs through the middle that dominates the landsca

General Suharto, Indonesia's dictator, watched this scenario closely and quickly became upset at the thought of East Timor becoming independent and led by ASDT, now Fretilin. Suharto saw this political group as too left wing.

Genocidal acts committed by Indonesian troops have been known for a long time by the Western world. Since 1975 over 200,000 people have been murdered with another 200,000 to 300,000 missing. That is almost half of the entire population of East Timor. Three particular groups have been the main recipients of these acts. The first group was the Chinese merchant class. At the beginning of the invasion over 60,000 Chinese lived on East Timor. During the attack on Dili and its subsequent occupation over 20,000 Chinese had been murdered. The main reason for this violence towards the Chinese was their prosperity. The Chinese controlled all the trading on the island. The second group was the Roman Catholic population. Over 50% of the population of East Timor had been converted to Catholicism while the rest of Timor remained devout followers of Islam. Of that group over 30% were arrested and executed. The third group and probably the most disturbing thing to come out of East Timor was the raping and killing of women and little girls. The Indonesian government has even gone so far as to implement sterilization techniques on the population. Entire villages have been rounded up and given shots of Depo-Provera, which is a birth control drug.

By 1974 a bloody revolution in Portugal overthrew the ruling dictatorship and the decolonization of East Timor had begun. When the population of East Timor was notified three main political parties emerged.

In 1975 the United Nations condemned the invasion of East Timor, but could do nothing because only half of the nations involved voted against Indonesia. One of those condemning Indonesia was Australia. Australia has been a long time ally of East Timor, helping them in World War II and now by taking in refugees and putting an embargo in place. Of the nations not condemning Indonesia, the United States is the most prominent. The reasons for this are many. Firstly, Indonesia controls the sea-lanes for the entire Southeast Asian area. Secondly, Indonesia is extremely rich in untapped natural resources. Mainly oil, rubber, and valuable minerals have caught the eye of many nations. And thirdly, the United States has given Indonesia over $30 billion in military aid.

On December 7, 1975 General Suharto carried out his threat made earlier and launched an assault into East Timor. This first target for the Indonesian troops was the capital city of Dili. Thousands of

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Approximate Word count = 1803
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)