For months, the Indonesian military treated militia massacres as a volume knob, adjusting the slaughter to avoid American intervention while the UN struggled to hold a referendum.
By Harlan Pryce ·
A high-level meeting kept secret for decades shows the U.S. urging an Indonesian military that had just devastated East Timor to maintain 'sensitivities' while ignoring its own complicity in a decades-long occupation.
By Harlan Pryce ·
The blood-soaked streets of Dili were the result of a deliberate choice kept hidden in an intelligence report that parsed the Indonesian military's intent to ignore a democratic vote.
By Harlan Pryce ·
A 1999 telegram kept secret for decades captures the US Embassy's recognition that Indonesian generals were arming civilians to kill a vote on independence.
By Harlan Pryce ·
While General Kiki Syanakri surrendered the capital to avoid a clash, TNI soldiers and proxies murdered civilians on the road to Los Palos—a cost kept secret for decades.
By Harlan Pryce ·
For years, the American government stayed silent about the killings of Indonesian students, using a curated gap in the record to shield the military from the families of the dead.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Indonesian militias gutted Dili and murdered civilians while the UN retreated, a slaughter recorded in a brief that admitted the U.S. had no cards left to play.
By Harlan Pryce ·
The slaughter of East Timorese civilians and the siege of international observers were documented in a 17-page report that remained a secret of the State Department for years.
By Harlan Pryce ·
A 1999 telegram, heavily redacted, shows the bargain struck between a U.S. Secretary of Defense and the general who denied the murder of East Timorese civilians
By Harlan Pryce ·
While Bill Clinton publicly cut off military aid to Indonesia, a secret cable shows the U.S. played the "friend" to a general whose forces were razing East Timor to the ground.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Thousands were displaced and homes burned as the Indonesian military cleared East Timor in 1999—a carnage the U.S. State Department watched in real-time.
By Desmond Okafor ·
For months before a critical referendum, U.S. officials watched as Indonesian special forces masqueraded as police to orchestrate a campaign of terror against East Timorese civilians.
By Harlan Pryce ·
While Timorese voters faced slaughter from state-backed gangs, an intelligence report from September 1999 weighed whether the Indonesian state ever intended to stop the killing
By Harlan Pryce ·
For years, the U.S. watched as East Timor's path to independence was blocked by a diplomatic lie; a February 1999 memo shows the intelligence community feared the cost of the truth.
By Desmond Okafor ·
While the UN weighed a peacekeeping force to protect a vote on independence, a March 1999 intelligence digest tracked the Indonesian military's secret arming of paramilitary death squads.
By Desmond Okafor ·
While the Mahidi militia strangled economic life in East Timor, a U.S. official watched the Indonesian military coordinate a reign of terror from the open.
By Harlan Pryce ·