East Timor
May 20 was the 20th anniversary of the formation of Fretilin. There could have been few more appropriate events to mark Fretilin's struggle for freedom and justice in East Timor than the forced resignation of Indonesian dictator Suharto on May 21.
For the people of East Timor, Suharto's resignation is a huge symbolic victory. Hearing the final speech of the man who ordered the invasion of East Timor in 1975 and maintained a military occupation which cost more than 200,000 East Timorese lives (one-third of the population) must have brought tears of joy to many East Timorese eyes.
Suharto's demise does not mean East Timor is free. It is still occupied by a military command which has sworn to defend Suharto, his family and their cronies in power in Indonesia. And there has been no acknowledgment by the new president (and Suharto protégé), Jusuf Habibie, of East Timor's right to self-determination.
But last week's victory for people's power in Indonesia sends a powerful message to the people of East Timor that they are not alone in their opposition to the dictatorship, and that their own resistance can, by organising and mobilising the people, win its demands.
For the women of East Timor, this small step towards justice is especially important.
For 23 years, the East Timorese population has been subjected to innumerable human rights abuses at the hands of the Indonesian military. The abuse of women in East Timor — the rape, forced sterilisation, torture and compulsory prostitution — although widely known, has been difficult to document: human rights organisations are denied access to the country, foreign media are tightly controlled, and the low status of women in East Timor, combined with the deep shame they feel about their abuse, largely shield the horrors from scrutiny.
Miranda E. Sissons, in her detailed account of these atrocities, From One Day to Another: Violations of Women's Reproductive and Sexual Rights in East Timor, points out that almost two-thirds of East Timorese women of child-bearing age have no schooling, compared to 15.2% in Indonesia overall. For those who have, the median duration of attendance at school is less than one year.
According to the UN, in 1996 East Timor had a death rate of 17 per 1000, double that of Indonesia and the highest in east and south-east Asia. The infant mortality rate, 149 per 1000, is almost three times that of Indonesia and one of the five worst in the world. Unofficial evidence, says Sissons, also suggests extremely high levels of maternal mortality.
East Timorese women's right to life, security and health is systematically violated by the enforcement of Indonesia's national population control program, the KB program. Large numbers of women have been threatened, tricked or coerced into having long-acting contraceptive injections, usually without appropriate information or follow-up care. Women have been injected while pregnant, causing birth defects, and whole schools have been injected, despite the known dangers of such drugs to young women.
Sissons says that fear of covert sterilisation by tubal ligation is one of the primary reasons that East Timorese women are reluctant to use Indonesian medical facilities.
Persistent rape, prostitution and the forced "marriage" of East Timorese women to Indonesian soldiers are widely reported. Women with family members in the guerilla movement have been singled out for particular abuse, and there is photographic evidence of the rape and torture of female prisoners.
The abuse of the women of East Timor must be stopped. The Indonesian occupation must end.
Just as Â鶹´«Ã½ of the pro-democracy movement in Indonesia are taking advantage of the current crisis of the Indonesian dictatorship to press forward their demands for democracy and justice in Indonesia, and freedom for East Timor, we too must raise even more loudly our demands that the Australian government:
- end all ties with the brutal Indonesian regime;
- recognise the East Timorese people's right to self-determination; and
- let the East Timorese refugees stay.
[From One Day to Another is available from the East Timor Human Rights Centre, 124 Napier St., Fitzroy 3065, for $5.95.]
By Lisa Macdonald