Indonesian invasion of East Timor

Uncommon card · No. 91136

The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, known in Indonesia as Operation Lotus (Indonesian: Operasi Seroja), began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military (ABRI/TNI) invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism and anti-communism to overthrow the Fretilin government that had emerged in 1974. The overthrow of the popular and short-lived Fretilin-led government sparked a violent quarter-century occupation in which approximately 100,000–180,000 soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed or starved to death. The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor documented a minimum estimate of 102,000 deaths as a result of the conflict in East Timor during the period 1974 to 1999, as well as a large part of the consequences of Indonesian war crimes during the invasion of Dili, including 18,600 violent killings and 84,200 deaths from disease and starvation; Indonesian forces and their auxiliaries combined were responsible for 70% of the killings...

Read on Wikipedia · Image J. Patrick Fischer and Borysk5, CC BY-SA 3.0