Currently viewing the tag: "East Timor"

Claire Smith, a political scientist at York University and one of our collaborators on the how mass atrocities end project, has a new article out. In it, she examines the role of military intervention in Indonesia, placing it in context of other factors that helped produce an ending in East Timor. Below is the […]

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There is bitter irony here. Even for the winning side, this bloody outcome was not optimal. Indonesia was left in physical control of the towns, but not of the mountains, where low level guerrilla warfare continued for decades. It controlled most bodies but few hearts and minds among the traumatised population. Once news of the atrocities broke through the Indonesian and Australian information blockade, it deepened Indonesia’s diplomatic isolation. Within Indonesia, the East Timor atrocities exacerbated New Order militarism.

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