What went wrong in East Timor?
by S.P. Seth THE August 30 referendum in East Timor, with a 78.5 per cent vote for independence from Indonesia (from a 98 per cent-plus voter turnout, let loose a reign of terror by the pro-integration militias in that territory. Obviously, all the killings, destruction and forcible displacement of people couldn t have occurred without the involvement of the Indonesian army. The obvious question: why did Jakarta act as a terribly sore loser when it had agreed, in the first place, to a UN referendum (called an act of consultation) offering the choice of autonomy or independence to East Timor? The simple answer is that Jakarta hoped to control and direct the referendum process to favour integration. Apparently, it was part of President B.J. Habibie s on-going attempts to create a democratic image for himself internationally to shoreup his domestic position. As a protege of the discredited former President Suharto, he was a tainted figure. He, therefore, sought to strengthen his position
