Eyeing East Timor

Election observers tell of linguistic intrigue and the strain of maintaining neutrality.
by Doug Collins, The FreePress

If I had stayed in the military, my career could have led to special forces, and I might have trained the Indonesian military that's in East Timor now," says Trevor Olson, an observer for an independence election held in East Timor on August 30. "I'm glad I left because I wouldn't want to be in that position."

Olson was trained by the US Army in psychological operations, Indonesian language, and interrogation. "Basically I was trained in propaganda." But this year Olson--out of the military since 1993--was instead trained in maintaining neutrality, as well as in other nuances of being a UN-accredited election observer.

Olson and two other observers from the Seattle area--Elwin Wirkala and Chris Lundry--went to East Timor for five weeks to witness the independence vote and take notes on any irregularities in the weeks before and after the election. The UN hopes that the presence of some 200 volunteer international observers helps minimize election-related violence and intimidation.

Olson, a native of Idaho, signed up for the Army in 1990 on a promise that he would learn European languages. Instead, he was soon sent to learn Indonesian (also called "Bahasa"), a creole of Malay and Javanese with some Dutch and English influence. It's the official language of the archipelago nation of Indonesia, where some 600 languages are spoken.

While on a military tour of Indonesia, Olson met a Timorese man who told of his family being killed by Indonesian military. Olson at first didn't believe the account, but became curious and started researching the issue in his spare time.

He also met his Indonesian wife there. (They were married upon a return trip in 1996, and they now live in Seattle, where Olson is enrolled at UW.) He describes Indonesian people as "amazingly kind and charismatic" but also unaware of East Timor. "The issue is known more outsided Indonesia than inside." According to Olson, there is essentially no press coverage of East Timor inside Indonesia.

In the US, East Timor received little mainstream attention in the 1970s and 80s, due to corporate interests in the region and pro-Jakarta policies in the US. Noam Chomsky for years used his podium to call attention to the atrocities in East Timor. Human rights groups estimate that some 200,000 Timorese--or a third of the population--died due to the Indonesian invasion of 1975. Militias backed by elements in the Indonesian military still terrorize. At least 84 pro-independence activists were murdered last April alone. Pro-independence Timorese guerrilla groups are also active, and have claimed the lives of perhaps 30,000 Indonesian soldiers.

The United Nations is operating the election with the agreement of Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, who inherited the hot spot from ousted President Suharto last year. But many Indonesian generals do not support the vote. The military commander of East Timor publicly stated earlier this year that things could be "worse than 1975" if the Timorese vote against Indonesia.

A US state department official says, "Essentially we're fully supporting the UN process," and adds, "The US is officially neutral on the outcome of the vote. We want the vote to be truly transparent and fair."

Olson sees the Clinton posture on East Timor as being "a great improvement" on past administrations, but criticizes the Clinton administration for becoming "less idealist" in the last few years.

Educational Aims

This sensitive election time is obviously no vacation junket for the observers. Asked about his fears, Wirkala darkly jokes, "The mortality rate is still 100 percent," implying that everyone dies at one point or another. "I don't anticipate an early demise, but I'm 55 and they are recruiting a lot of younger people. I just hope it's safe." Olson is 27 years old and Lundry 30.

Wirkala, coordinator of the Portuguese Studies program at UW, sees the trip as a good way to make initial contact with a Portuguese-speaking former colony. "Half the population of East Timor speaks Portuguese, so one of my practical reasons for going is to start educational contacts in the Portuguese-speaking world. It's good for students to become aware of the third world through language classes"

Wirkala hopes to eventually set up e-mail and other contacts between Portuguese speakers in East Timor and language students in the US. The Timorese dialect of Portuguese more closely resembles that of Brazil and other former colonies such as Mozambique and Cape Verde, explains Wirkala. Portuguese education has been banned by the Indonesian government since the takeover, so young Timorese generally don't speak it.

Some 300 indigenous dialects are also spoken in East Timor, according to Chris Lundry. A UW political science graduate currently working on a PhD at Arizona State University, Lundry has made East Timor the focus of his dissertation. He explains that one indigenous dialect, Tetum, has come into greater use during the Indonesian occupation as a way for Timorese of different dialects to communicate with each other without using Indonesian. "It's a lingua franca for the Timorese," he adds, "Portuguese as well as Tetum are languages of resistance. The [pro-independence] guerrillas use them."

Few Timorese live in the US. Lundry estimates the number is probably less than 100. They mostly live in New York, where one UN polling center is located. There are large Timorese communities in Australia--only a few hundred miles from East Timor--and Portugal. The International Federation for East Timor (IFET), working with the UN, has a goal of registering some 35,000 diaspora Timorese for the election at a number of international polling centers.

Election observers in East Timor must be able to maintain neutrality, part of their UN-accreditation. Though all three admit this can be a strain at times. "When somebody tells me that their sister's been raped and the rest of their family killed, it's hard for me to be neutral," says Olson, "But as far as the actual vote is concerned, I'm neutral. The people in East Timor need to vote how they want to vote."

Lundry adds, "There are people there who are pro-integration, and they have their reasons, which are mostly economic. Some of our role may be to assist those people. I have an idea of what the outcome of the vote will be, but I can't let it color my behavior there."

IFET wanted to send 60 to 80 volunteer election observers from the US but has only found 55. The primary obstacle is money. "There are more people who want to go than we have funds to send them with," explains Manu Saxena, a spokesperson for the Seattle chapter of the East Timor Action Network (ETAN). The three volunteers from Seattle receive some assistance from ETAN, but UW and family support have provided major means.

Traveling to East Timor can be difficult to arrange from the US, according to Lundry, who had to ask a friend in Indonesia to book the last leg of his trip, a flight from Bali to East Timor (there are also some flights from Darwin, Australia). Lundry has taken the flight twice before and says most of the passengers are usually Indonesian military. "They repeatedly asked me why I was going. I just said I was a tourist."