ASIO and the Australia-Timor-Leste solidarity movement, 1974-1979

Abstract

In May 2002, Timor-Leste (East Timor) became the first country to achieve independence in the twenty-first century, ending over four hundred years of colonial rule which began when the Portuguese arrived in the sixteenth century. The first government was led by FRETILIN, the political party which had launched the independence struggle in 1974, following the fall of the fascist regime in Portugal, only to face an armed invasion and brutal military occupation by its giant neighbour, the Republic of Indonesia in December 1975. By the time of the 1975 invasion, FRETILIN leaders had been working with solidarity activists in Australia for over a year as well as with other international solidarity and liberation movements, and this formed the basis for an association which continued throughout the war and beyond. The work of the period covered in this chapter, between 1974 and 1979, is sometimes overshadowed in studies of the role of international solidarity in the independence struggle (e.g., Fernandes, 2011), partly because of the great upsurge in activity after the Indonesian military massacre of student protesters at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili in 1991. Before 1991, many of the most influential Australian solidarity activists were members of communist and socialist organisations, and had a radical antiimperialist, anti-colonialist ideology. This perspective was shared by key FRETILIN leaders with whom they worked closely, often in clandestine and semi-clandestine ways (Da Silva, 2011).