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The Jakarta embassy actions in December 1995

By Edmund Thompson

Recent years have seen some important shifts in the struggle for East Timorese self determination and independence.

Within East Timor itself, an important new component of the liberation movement has emerged to complement the armed wing of the movement, which continues to wage guerrilla war against the Indonesian army of occupation. This new element is the clandestine, urban-based movement which is especially strong among East Timorese youth, who have spent most of their lives under Indonesian occupation. On October 12 1989 this new phase was launched onto the world stage, when, before the assembled international media, youth activists held a demonstration at the conclusion of a mass held in Dili by Pope John Paul II. In the following years, youth and student activists continued to extend and organise their clandestine network. Not only did they organise support for the resistance fighters in the hills, but they have also made use of every available opportunity to demonstrate to the world the depth of support in East Timor, especially among youth, for national liberation.

The depth of this support, and the strength of the clandestine movement, was most vividly demonstrated to the world on November 12 1991 when over 200 people were massacred by Indonesian troops in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili. They had been attending a funeral service for another young East Timorese activist, Sebastiao Gomes, who had been killed by troops two weeks before. In the aftermath of the Dili massacre and the intense repression which followed it, the struggle of the East Timorese people has become the focus of unprecedented international attention. In the years which have followed, especially following the capture and trial of CNRM (National Council of Maubere Resistance)leader Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese liberation movement has more than ever recognised the international arena as a third crucial front for the liberation of their homeland -- alongside the armed and clandestine urban wings of the movement. Media coverage of human rights violations in East Timor and the continuing struggle there, as well as the growing international movement in solidarity with the East Timorese people, have put considerable pressure on the Indonesian regime and on the Western governments which provide it with financial and military support and are thus complicit in its occupation of East Timor.

Indonesian peoples' movement

At the same time, in Indonesia itself, there has been growing opposition to the thirty year rule of General Suharto. In the late eighties, a new student movement emerged in the towns of Java. It campaigned actively for the rights of farmers dispossessed of their land, for an end to repression on campuses and for a range of democratic and human rights. Since that time, an increasingly broadly based and militant opposition movement has begun to emerge. A huge number of groups have been formed which are willing to challenge the regime in a whole range of areas. There are now an almost countless array of new labour, farmers, artists, students, women's and environmental groups. Public demonstrations, in the eighties a rarity, are now almost a daily occurrence on the streets of Jakarta and other cities. In the industrial estates which surround them, huge strikes by an increasingly well organised and militant labour force take place regularly.

Peoples' Democratic Union

An important element of the new popular -- radical movement in Indonesia is represented by PRD, Persatuan Rakyat Demokratik, the People's Democratic Union. This organisation was formed in 1994. It's platform included a range of democratic demands, such as for the abolition of the military's "dual function" (which legitimates its "social-political" as well as its defence role) and for the repeal of the five key repressive political laws, which, among other things make it illegal to establish new political parties. Now, after almost two years of existence, during which time its activists have been subjected to constant harassment and repression, five other mass based organisations have been formed which have affiliated to PRD. These are the PPBI (Centre for Indonesian Labour Struggle), SMID (Student Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia), JAKER (People's Art Network), STN (National Peasants' Union) and SPRIM (Indonesian People's Solidarity Struggle with the Maubere People).

One aspect of the radicalism and mood of confrontation in the new democratic student, youth and opposition movement in Indonesia has been a willingness to question and challenge the regime on issues which have previously been considered off-limits. These include the treatment of political prisoners, the tremendous massacres of 1965-6, and, very importantly, the occupation of East Timor. The older generation of human rights activists in Indonesia have been -- and continue to be -- very cautious on East Timor. Not only did they, in the past, face difficulties in attaining accurate information, but East Timor has generally been considered by them to be a taboo area where it is too dangerous to directly challenge the government. At most, they take up particular instances of human rights violations, but skirt around crucial issues like the history of the invasion and the right to self determination.

Solidarity with East Timor

Many in the new generation of activists have shed these inhibitions. For example, when PRD was formed, its declaration read in part that it 'supported a peaceful (without military intervention) resolution of the East Timor problem which respects the human rights and democratic rights of the East Timorese nation.' SPRIM, which is affiliated to PRD, is the first organisation in Indonesia with the specific aim of supporting the struggle for East Timorese self determination. At the same time, a number of other student groups and non-governmental organisations have become more interested in and supportive of the East Timorese cause.

Thus, a fourth front has effectively been opened against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor: the struggle for democratisation within Indonesia itself, where the participants in that struggle increasingly view East Timorese self determination as a necessary component of their own campaign for the overthrow of the Suharto regime. Since the Dili massacre many activists in the East Timorese clandestine movement have been forced to flee repression in their homeland to Java (in particular, many left in mid and late 1995 following a series of riots and subsequent crack down in Dili and other towns). Other activists have come to Java under government programmes which aim to further 'integration' by bringing East Timorese youth to Java as students or workers. In effect, this has meant the transplantation of part of the clandestine movement to Java. An early indication of this was a demonstration by East Timorese youth in Jakarta which took place a few days after the Dili massacre in 1991. But no Indonesian activists were directly involved in that action. Since that time, many of these East Timorese activists have developed increasingly close contacts with Indonesian pro-democracy activists, especially those in SPRIM and PRD.

Foreign embassy demonstrations

At the same time, these East Timorese youth, centred in Jakarta, have developed a new tactic to seize world attention: demonstrations in foreign embassies. For many years, East Timorese activists who were under particular pressure from Indonesian security forces have from time to time entered foreign embassies to seek political asylum. But the first action which made a major impact on world opinion was in November 1994 when a group decided to take advantage of the APEC conference and the presence in Jakarta of a massive international press corps and numerous heads of government, including US President Bill Clinton. Twenty nine of them climbed the fence of the U.S. embassy and demanded to meet Clinton. They occupied the embassy compound for twelve days before they were flown out of Indonesia to political asylum in Portugal.

About a year later, in response to increasing repression in East Timor, a number of other 'embassy invasions' took place. The largest of these, up to that point, was the occupation of the Japanese embassy by 21 activists on November 14 1995 -- shortly after the fourth anniversary of the Dili massacre and immediately before the opening of the APEC conference in Osaka.

December 1995

This is the background to the major embassy actions which took place in Jakarta on December 7 1995, the twentieth anniversary of the invasion of East Timor. These actions were bound to be dramatic for a number of reasons. There was the timing of the protest, which not only gave it tremendous political symbolism but ensured that the security forces in Jakarta would be anticipating such an action and would be prepared to attempt to prevent it or respond to it with force. There was the sheer scale of the operation -- it was planned that over one hundred people would enter the two embassies, an unprecedented number. (It is worth noting that these two factors posed great logistical problems to the organisers of the action -- it had to be planned in utmost secrecy, large numbers of East Timorese and Indonesian activists had to be brought into Jakarta and hidden there, and entry into the embassies, press and publicity work as well as contingency plans for escape all had to be coordinated efficiently and secretly.)
And there was the determination of the East Timorese participants to hold out for as long as possible in the embassy grounds without seeking political asylum. In part, this was to counter the crude allegations of Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and other spokespersons of the regime that those East Timorese who entered foreign embassies did so in order to get "free plane tickets" to Portugal. The plan was to make use of the international immunity of the embassy compounds to demonstrate in favour of independence for as long a time as possible, with the option of requesting asylum only a possible last resort. After all, it is necessary to use foreign embassy grounds not only for the media coverage which is thus assured but because any pro-East Timorese demonstration on a street or other public place in Jakarta would prompt an immediate and vicious reaction from security forces.

Indonesian participation

But above all, the most dramatic aspect of these actions was the participation of Indonesian activists in them. This was unprecedented. It was the first time that Indonesians had gone beyond vocal statements of support for the East Timorese struggle and actually participated in a joint action alongside East Timorese. The fact that the demonstrations were to be held in foreign embassies and would cause the regime such international embarrassment, and that those Indonesians who participated did so openly and in the name of their organisation, PRD, made this all the more remarkable. When the participation of PRD activists in the occupations first became known in Jakarta, it amazed seasoned journalists and other Indonesian human rights and democracy activists. It disoriented the spokespersons of the regime who, as the actions unfolded, could not now so glibly describe the demonstrators as 'traitors' who simply wanted free passage out of the country. And above all, it proved conclusively to the outside world the existence of a strata of the Indonesian pro-democracy movement who fully support the right of the East Timorese people to self determination and who are willing to confront considerable risks in order to show their support.

In the end, a total of 105 people managed to get inside the Dutch and Russian embassies: 58 in the Russian embassy and 47 in the Dutch embassy. In both embassies, as the documents in this collection show, the activists were put under great pressure to give up their protests. At the Dutch embassy a group of military-organised thugs actually invaded the compound to beat the protestors: wounding the ambassador in the process! In the end, the activists were turfed out of the Russian embassy on December 8 and out of the Dutch embassy on December 9. Both groups of demonstrators were immediately taken for 24 hours' interrogation. Since that time, although some of them have been temporarily detained and others are still wanted for questioning, the fact that none have been detained for a longer period itself represents a victory for the international campaign which was coordinated by the organisers of the protests, leaders of the East Timorese movement and their supporters all around the world.

The embassy occupations involved three fronts in the struggle for East Timorese independence -- the East Timorese clandestine, urban based movement; the struggle for world media attention and international solidarity; and the new and emerging struggle for the support of the Indonesian pro-democratic movement. Because of its historic nature, ASIET views it as important to document this action.

The documents which follow all serve to introduce various aspects of this action. There are press reports, statements and chronologies, interviews, and petitions -- all of which were produced at the time of the action and flashed around the world by electronic mail. In this dossier, each document is introduced by a brief comment which aims to provide the reader with necessary background information.