Posted on: Tuesday, May 21, 2002

EDITORIAL
East Timor: great hope, daunting odds

Following centuries of oppressive colonization by the Portuguese and then 24 years of brutal Indonesian military occupation, East Timor finally gained its hard-earned independence yesterday.

From the Indonesian military's invasion in 1975 until the slaughter that followed a U.N.-organized referendum choosing independence in 1999, more than one-third of the East Timorese population (200,000 people) was killed, according to Amnesty International. Today the former East Timorese underground resistance forms the basis of a new society, but it's starting from very nearly scratch. The international community's response is crucial to getting this new government to the point of viability. Meanwhile poverty, disease and other problems have the upper hand.

The Bush administration can help by insisting on justice for the Indonesians who have so brutalized this new nation — the show trials being held in Indonesia fall woefully short — and by taking the lead in extending generous aid terms from the international community and the World Bank.