As much as one third of the population is estimated to have been killed in the Indonesian armys campaign to forcibly integrate East Timor. International pressure has forced Indonesia to agree to allow the referendum and to abide by its results, but members of the military began organizing the anti-independence militia to intimidate voters soon after the poll was announced. "Its impossible to tell whether the Indonesian government is being disingenuous with the West about its intentions or whether theyre simply unable to control the military in East Timor," says Calabresi. "But violence is expected to intensify even after Mondays vote." An independent East Timor may be born on Monday, but Indonesian officers appear determined to bathe its birth in blood.
East Timor Braces for Independence Bloodbath
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Indonesian army officers have treated East Timor its personal fiefdom over 25 years, and they're not about to let go quietly. Although polling day was peaceful for the most part in Monday's U.N. referendum on independence for territory occupied by Indonesia since 1975, a pro-indepence result could see an escalation in the political violence that claimed dozens of lives in the run-up to the vote. "Anti-independence militias armed and supported by members of the Indonesian military have been simply going out and killing people," says TIME correspondent Massimo Calabresi. The militiamen have warned that if voters choose independence, the tiny country will be turned into a "sea of fire." Thats got independence advocates calling for an armed U.N. peacekeeping force to take control of the territory straight after the poll, although the international body is unlikely to send in troops in a situation where one group remains intractably hostile to the will of the majority.