The Indonesia/East Timor
Documentation Project
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/indonesia/index.htmlNew - January 24, 2006
"East Timor truth commission finds U.S. "political and military support were fundamental to the Indonesian invasion and occupation"
"Responsibility" chapter published on Web by National Security Archive
"About the Project
Since 2002, the National Security Archive's Indonesia / East Timor documentation project has sought to identify and seek release of thousands of secret U.S. documents concerning U.S. policy toward Indonesia and East Timor from 1965-1999. It aims to assist East Timorese and Indonesian official and nongovernmental efforts to document and seek accountability for more than three decades of human rights abuses committed during the rule of Indonesian President Suharto (1965-1998)..."
Ford and Kissinger Gave Green Light to
Indonesia's Invasion of East Timor, 1975:
December 6, 2001
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/"New Documents Detail Conversations with Suharto..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/12/27/president_gerald_ford_dies_at_93Former President Gerald Ford died last night at the age of 93. We begin our coverage of Ford’s time in office with a look at his support for the Indonesian invasion of East Timor that killed one-third of the Timorese population. We’re joined by Brad Simpson of the National Security Archives and journalist Alan Nairn.....
AMY GOODMAN: How knowledgeable was President Ford at the time of the situation?
BRAD SIMPSON: Well, Ford was very much aware. He was receiving hourly briefings, as was Henry Kissinger, as his plane lifted off from Indonesia, as the invasion indeed commenced. And immediately afterwards Gerald Ford flew to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, or to Guam—excuse me, where he gave a speech saying that never again should the United States allow another nation to strike in the middle of the night, to attack another defenseless nation. This was on Pearl Harbor Day, of course. Realizing full well that another day of infamy was unfolding in Dili, East Timor. As thousands of Indonesian paratroopers, trained by the United States, using US supplied weapons, indeed jumping from United States supplied airplanes, were descending upon the capital city of Dili and massacring literally thousands of people in the hours and days after December 7, 1975.
AMY GOODMAN: Brad, how difficult was it to get this declassified? The memos that you got? And how long were these memos about Ford and Kissinger’s meeting with the long reigning Suharto? How long were they kept classified?
BRAD SIMPSON: Well, they are kept classified until the fall of 2002. We now know, actually, that a Congressman from Minnesota, Donald Fraser, had actually attempted to declassify the memo, the so-called Smoking Gun Memo, the transcript of General Suharto’s conversation with Gerald Ford, in December of 1975. Congressman Fraser actually tried to declassify this in document in 1978 during the Suharto adm--or during the Carter years and Carter’s National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, realizing full well the explosive nature of this cable would show that the United States had been an accomplice in an international act of aggression, recommended that the State Department refuse to declassify the memo, a mere three years after the invasion.
And it took another 25 years after this episode before the cables were finally declassified and of course much more has come out..."SUHARTO: 1921-2008
Former Indonesian dictator leaves bloody legacy
Zakki Hakim, Associated Press
Sunday, January 27, 2008
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/27/MNGRUN9Q3.DTL
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