On August 30th, East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Indonesia, in spite of a wave of militia violence encouraged by the Indonesian military. Yet the West (including the U.N., the U.S., Britain, and Portugal, the former colonial ruler) have abandoned East Timor to a bloody massacre--one that rivals the murder of over 200,000 East Timorese when Indonesia first invaded in 1975.

The violence has been much worse than U.S. newspapers have reported. Militias have stormed and looted churches, Red Cross stations, and U.N. offices, killing aid workers, priests, and U.N. personnel. Immediately after the vote, militias targeted Indonesian journalists reporting on the Timor election for the fledgling independent Indonesian media and drove most of them from the province. Many native Timorese employed by the U.N. have been murdered and the rest driven from their homes; a long list of independence leaders have been killed. Many have fled to Australia and have told stories of seeing bodies stacked to the ceiling of warehouses in Dili, the capital city. Others report a pall of smoke hanging over the capital city from the burning of corpses and some witnesses have seen bodies being dumped in the sea from military ships. Dili, which a week ago held over 50,000 refugees taking shelter from militia violence in the countryside, is now a ghost town, with most of its buildings gutted and flattened.

The militias and the military have emptied numerous towns and villages across East Timor and burned shops and houses; an estimated 200,000 people--nearly one-quarter of East Timor's population--are refugees in their own country. Witnesses describe seeing thousands of refugees loaded onto trucks and boats for shipment out of East Timor. Others are being force-marched toward the border with West Timor; an estimated 1,000 refugees per day are crossing the border. Nearly 100,000 people are being held in camps in West Timor. These camps are being guarded by the military and militiamen who have driven aid workers away and kept journalists from entering the camps.

U.N. personnel who were stationed in East Timor to "supervise" the voting process have fled. The only U.N. personnel left are 70 people trapped inside the U.N. compound in Dili along with 1,000 refugees. Surrounded by militiamen carrying M-16s and driving stolen U.N. vehicles, these people have no access to food or medical care.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian mayor of Dili has declared that the killing will continue until the U.N. declares the vote invalid. The level of destruction within East Timor points to a planned campaign of terror by the Indonesian military with strategies similar to those used during the invasion of 1975. For example, as refugees flee, they are being intercepted by militia and military men who sort out anyone who is suspected of being a pro-independence supporter--these people are shot on sight or loaded onto trucks for shipment "elsewhere."

While the Indonesian military is busy destroying East Timor, the U.N. and the West continue to make useless appeals to the Indonesian government to "restore order." Clearly B.J. Habibie, the Indonesian President, no longer controls the military; rumors in Jakarta say he has completely capitulated to General Wiranto. For its part, the military is acting in the same way it did for decades under Suharto's rule to any perceived threat against Indonesia's sovereignty: by producing a well-coordinated massacre of government opponents. Any efforts to stop the killing have to be aimed at the Indonesian military.

Timor's pro-independence leaders and international aid agencies are all united in their call for U.N. peace-keeping troops in Timor (in fact, they've been asking for this for months now) and economic sanctions against Indonesia, including a freeze on IMF and World bank loans, suspension of trade, an end to weapons sales to Indonesia, and a cut-off of all aid funds.

But western nations have refused to consider any of these requests. East Timor is not Kosovo, as U.S. National Security Advisor Sandy Berger is quick to point out: "We have to recognize that Indonesia is in Asia, that the Indonesians will respond much better to a solution...that is dominated by the Asians and not dominated by the United States." Conversely, Kosovo was in Europe, which makes it part of our national territory? In fact, Indonesia has long been a client of the U.S. military, and numerous U.S. corporations do business there. Starbucks, for example, buys coffee beans grown in East Timor, and coffee is Timor's largest export.

Bill Clinton has been even more cowardly: "If Indonesia does not end the violence, it must invite--it must invite--the international community to assist in restoring security." Aside from the sheer idiocy of asking the Indonesian military to invite U.N. peace-keeping troops into East Timor, Clinton's message is clear: what counts is "security" for U.S. business, not justice, not the lives of the Timorese, not respect for the democratic process. So far, the U.N. Security Council--which ought to know better--agrees. Even though the U.N. has never recognized Indonesia's claim to East Timor, it still refuses to send in peacekeeping troops until Indonesia asks for them.

As to economic sanctions, Western nations all fear that even the tiniest economic move against Indonesia could precipitate a new Asian economic collapse, which could cause a chain reaction of economic collapse around the world--just as the 1997-98 depression brought down first Asia, then Russia, then Brazil, and eventually brought collapse to the rest of Latin America. Supposedly, Asia is undergoing an economic recovery. And, according to the economists, East Timor is too small to survive as an independent nation, anyway.

Bullshit. The very things that make East Timor attractive to Indonesia will help it survive as an independent nation. East Timor is not a poor country, even if its native people live in poverty. East Timorese agriculture provides enough corn, rice, beans, beef, and other food to feed its own population, unlike most Third World nations. Its coffee industry brings in $30 million per year in foreign currency. In addition, the territorial waters off the coast of East Timor hold one of the richest undeveloped supplies of oil and natural gas in the world. At this moment, the value of East Timor is being measured in spilt blood, while Western nations with the power to stop the killing simply turn their backs.

Of course a new government in East Timor might remember how the U.S. provided the weapons, planes, ships, and military training for Indonesia to invade East Timor in 1975 after the U.N. had recognized the tiny nation's right to independence. A new government in East Timor might remember that Britain and France have continued to sell weapons and planes to the Indonesian military so it could violently crush uprisings by the native peoples of East Timor, Aceh province, and Irian Jaya. A new government in East Timor might remember that Australia unilaterally recognized Indonesia's claim to East Timor and thereby gained a 50% share of any oil extracted from the waters of the Timor Gap.

But fortunately, activists and Timorese exiles around the world are willing to push for action. In Australia, 25,000 people (including union leaders, office workers, students, and politicians) stopped traffic in Melbourne. The militant Australian dock workers union, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), has organized a boycott of Indonesian ships at docks throughout Australia, Britain, and West Coast ports in the U.S. Member unions of the Australian Council of Trade Unions have stopped processing Indonesian crude oil, have stopped providing postal and telephone services and garbage pickup to the Indonesian Embassy and consulates, and have halted shipments of air freight on the Indonesian Garuda airline.

On Sept. 11, 700 protesters invaded the Sydney Airport and stormed the international terminal, halting all flights out on Garuda, especially those to the Indonesian tourist island of Bali. The same scene was repeated at airports in Melbourne and Brisbane, with protesters shouting "Free Timor now!" and "Little Johnny Howard, nothing but a coward" (in reference to Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to send troops to East Timor without Indonesia's prior approval). After the airport protests, bus loads of East Timorese exiles took over the 16-floor Sydney office building of Garuda Airlines, chanting "Indonesia out, U.N. in." In Canberra protesters spray-painted "Shame Australia!! Shame!" on the parliament building, and in Brisbane students painted a bloody cross on the floor of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade office.

And in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia itself, thousands of students are battling riot police to gain access to the parliament building to protest the military's massacre in East Timor. If they can do it in the heart of the beast, there's nothing that should stop us from speaking out.

To reach the Seattle East Timor Action Network, call 206-633-2836 or visit their website at www.scn.org/topics/activism/timor. The national group can be contacted at 718-596-7668, www.etan.org, or etan-outreach@igc.apc.org.