East Timor

Over the next couple of days (or weeks) I will be covering many of the declassified documents regarding U.S. support of General Suharto and his invasion of East Timor. During this 25-year occupation more than 100,000 Timorese died and many more tortured. In the introduction a staff writer for the National Security Archive asserts that the documents,

"…reveal a consistent pattern by successive U.S. administrations - stretching
over twenty-five years - of subordinating East Timor's right to
self-determination to its relations with Indonesia. They also demonstrate that
Washington realized Indonesia's intention of taking East Timor by force far
earlier than previously recognized, was aware of - and discounted or suppressed
- credible reports of ongoing Indonesian atrocities from 1975 to 1983, turned a
blind eye to the extensive use of U.S. weapons in East Timor, and through 1999
viewed the crisis in East Timor primarily as a distraction from its priority of
maintaining close relations with the Indonesian government and armed forces."