December 7th marks the twentieth anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The consequences of the 1975 invasion have been devastating for the local East Timorese population. Apart from those killed opposing Indonesian security forces, many have died as a result of disease and malnutrition. Out of a total pre-invasion population of nearly 650,000, estimates of the number who have died over the twenty years of the conflict go as high as 200,000.

Aside from the human and economic cost for the East Timorese themselves, the cost for Indonesia has also been enormous. Up to 20,000 military personnel have lost their lives. Many Indonesian families continue to lose loved ones fighting guerrilla insurgents whom the government regularly report as being a spent force. Large sums of s

To understand one reason why, we can turn to John Burton who pioneered a theory of conflict resolution that continues to dominate scholarly research. Burton argues that conflict involves basic human needs that can't be simply traded off against one another, but have to be respected in any negotiation process. These contrasts with interests which Burton argues can be traded in a negotiation process.

Ideally, a way of resolving the East Timor conflict would be one where the main actors involved recognize their mutual basic needs and negotiate a resolution of the conflict accordingly. For the Indonesians, one basic need is security. Would an autonomous East Timor destabilize the Indonesian republic by supporting secessionists in its outlying provinces? Would it serve as an example for other provinces to agitate for greater autonomy or even independence? Another need would be 'face'. This equates to some recognition that the human, economic and diplomatic cost to Indonesia has not been wasted.

For the East Timorese, a basic need is self-determination. This would be satisfied if East Timorese had greater control over their own political destiny. Another basic need is identity - the recognition that East Timor has its own cultural and religious traditions and these have to be preserved. Also, the East Timorese need to be able to celebrate their own national heroes - some of whom died fighting against the Indonesian army.

Only by a genuine commitment by both sides to a comprehensive resolution based on recognizing the basic needs of

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