Customer Reviews

East Timor: Genocide in Paradise (The Real Story Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author gives a basic yet horrifying description of Indonesia's mass murder and terror against the people of East Timor, heavily supported from its inception by the United States and its allies. Its short length inevitably gives it a certain superficiality; I don't think the author is quite able to impart the full horror of the tragedy. But the basic facts are cogent enough and should give American citizens pause for painful but important reflections on how their government actually conducts foreign policy and what they can do to stop it from supporting tyranny and genocide.

This edition was published some months before the orgy of murder and terror of last September and thus the author did not have the opportunity to bring the story full circle.

I found Matthew Jardine's book next to a cash register at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) one day on my way to a flight.

I read it from cover to cover during the one hour flight and even though I was already familiar with the basic history of East Timor, the book informed me in a concise and well written manner, condensing the essense of that tragic history into a few dozen pages........I strongly recommend that anyone interested in what is happening on this planet read this book.

This is a great introduction to East Timor, but with the situation changing so rapidly, and with tremendously heightened interest, it's understandble that people would like to know more. One place to find out is the East Timor Action Network.

This book is a great introduction to the situation in East Timor. It effectively and succintly provides a thorough overview of Portuguese colonialism, the rise of East Timorese nationalism, and Indonesia's bloody invasion and occupation. While the subject matter is somewhat depressing, the book also illustrates the incredible bravery and resilience of the East Timorese people. Finally, and most importantly for a U.S. audience, the author convincingly demonstrates the shameful and decisive role of the U.S. government in Indonesia's crimes against humanity.

This book succintly describes the role that the US played in supporting Indonesia's 24-year brutal military occupation of East Timor -- as a result of which 1/3 of the population lost their lives. The author shows that the US trained and armed the military, and provided critical diplomatic and financial support to Indonesia. The US government's recent position in support of peace and self-determination in East Timor is much welcomed, but the US only has taken this position after years of grassroots pressure and a groundswell of international condemnation of Indonesia's brutality. If the US acted weeks sooner, the widespread destruction could have been prevented. If the US had not supported Indonesia's aggression 24 years earlier, the genocide would not have occurred. Read this book!

This book is fantastic...very enlightening to one of the world's overlooked instances of genocide and brutality. my only quarrel with the book is that it is kind of short and I found myself wanting more information. Still, if you are looking for a place to start, this is it.

Matthew Jardine's and Noam Chomsky's polemic on the East Timor tragedy goes far in recounting the story of a forgotten land that has suffered incredible neglect and exploitation on the part of a host of nations who, only in the past decade, have changed their foreign policy to allow these victimized people to lead a life free of the violence and instability that has plagued the world's newest nation for the better part of the 20th century.

Although written prior to the 1999 Australian-led UN intervention, the facts surrounding East Timor's abuse are clear:

-Portugal left East Timor in a state of extreme poverty and disorganization. By the time of the 1975 Revolution, the Portuguese could barely keep their own country running, much less worry about lending assistance to their doomed (and newly independent) former colonies in Africa and elsewhere.

-The impotence of the Portuguese government in the 70's opened the door for Indonesia to declare its desire to absorb what amounted to a microscopic nation occupying half of a small island in the Indonesian archipelago.

-The US State Department, along with other friendly nations, were unwilling to jeopardize political/commercial/military relations with a strategically located country such as Indonesia over an issue so minor as Timor, and preferred to ignore Indonesian brutality as it committed gross human rights violations in an effort to subdue the people into obedience.

This makes for a concise and fairly accurate account of the ordeal prior to the relatively "happy ending" in 1999, and should be read by anyone wishing to understand the story of a nation that few Americans even realize exists.

A great place to start if you are interested in exploring the extent to which Indonesia and the USA have violated the human rights of the people of E. Timor.

I didn't know about the atrocities in East Timor and the USA's complicity in them until I read reference to them in one of Chomsky's works. The outrage was kept secret from the USA public for a long time.

This book provides an excellent introduction to the history and global political dynamics behind the pogroms. You will be shocked and amazed.