Timor-Leste Scorched Earth
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After East Timor (now Timor-Leste) voted for its independence on August 30, 1999 from a 23 year occupation by Indonesia, a militia which Indonesia initially denied responsibility for began a "Scorched earth" campaign of murder and terror, also destroying the buildings and infrastructure of East Timor. Later UN investigations and local independent reviews confirm this campaign had been organised by the Indonesian military up to six months before.
The main UN suspects, organizers General Wiranto and prominent militia leader Eurico Guterres, have to date not been held accountable by Indonesia for their sacking of the newly independent Timor-Leste.
Events Before
In April 1999, the Indonesian government effectively closed the Universitas Timor Timur (UNTIM) in response to demands for a referendum.
Upon the announcement of a ballot by the UN, most students and the few Timorese lecturers returned to their villages to campaign for independence, while the Indonesian lecturers returned to Indonesia. University students fanned across the country before the referendum in 1999 to work for the vote for independence, many being killed in the violence that followed.
Also in December massacres of independence supporters in Liquiçá and of refugees seeking shelter at the Díli home of independence leader Manuel Carrascalão, foretold events to come.
In June 1999, a large section of the NUS Library was removed by an Indonesian academic and reputedly moved into the Protestant Library in Kupang. This included the valuable English collection.
A month after the election, US prosecutors filed indictments against twenty Indonesian soldiers and three hundred pro-Jakarta militiamen for acts of mass extermination, deportation, and imprisonment.
An estimated 100,000 East Timorese fled or were driven across the border into West Timor, where, through rumours of on-going atrocities at home and militia forces, they remained refugees for months.
The pro-Indonesian Militia were only defeated when a peace keeping force, initially of Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed to enforce the result of the vote. The United Nations subsequently took over control of the ANZAC operation.
By November 2003 there were still 50,000 refugees in the camps in West Timor and UN inspections reveal appalling conditions.