MB Civic

Butigan at Waging Nonviolence ..

Controlled by the Portuguese since the 16th century and rich in timber and offshore natural gas, East Timor had been decolonized in 1975, only to be promptly invaded and occupied by Indonesia in a military operation green-lighted by U.S. President Gerald Ford and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. A brutal counter-insurgency campaign was waged for decades against the armed resistance that sprang up after the invasion. Though U.N. resolutions condemned Indonesia’s land grab and the massive violence that ensued, Western governments did nothing to challenge this arrangement. In the late 1980s, the resistance set a new course, largely shifting from armed struggle — which had proved ineffective in dislodging Indonesia’s withering domination — to a strategy focused on nonviolent campaigns

and it worked! – mab .. read more