The Trouble With Normal: The Indonesian Military, Paramilitaries, and the Final Solution in East Timor

Kammen, Douglas

doi:10.7591/9781501719042-007

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…For Aceh, representative works from "below" include Schulze (2004), Kingsbury (2007), and Aspinall (2009), while state-centric perspectives include Robinson (2001) andMiller (2008). For East Timor, major works from below are Jolliffe (1978) and Niner (2000), while those from "above" include Kammen (2001) and Robinson (2009). For Papua from below see King (2004), and for state economic and security policy see Elmslie (2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict and Peace Studies in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Kammen¹

2023

AJP

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Expectations that the end of Suharto's thirty-two years of authoritarian rule in Indonesia in 1998 would usher in an era of political reform, including the end to separatist rebellions, human rights abuses, and military impunity, were dashed by the intensification of old conflicts and outbreak of new forms of violence. Despite initial optimism, efforts to address human rights violations during the New Order stalled. This article surveys the various forms of conflict in Indonesia over the past twenty years and the major trends in scholarship, together with the smaller body of literature framed specifically in terms of peacebuilding. It concludes that much of the literature on peacebuilding has been driven by institutional interests and the incentives created by the funding of these institutions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflict and Peace Studies in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Kammen¹

2023

AJP

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“…In fact, the Indonesian military deliberately expanded the role of PGMs as part of its broader military strategy in the region during the 1990s, and Indonesian military officers acknowledged "that they were providing weapons to the 'rampaging gangs'" (Kammen, 2001: 183). The Garda Paksi, for example, helped the military with sweeps of local areas to arrest opponents (Kammen, 2001). The Ninjas, another government-funded PGM, were tasked with targeting local populations with terror and violence; the group was well equipped with supplies ranging from automatic pistols to night binoculars to knives and axes, thus allowing them to target the local populace (Robinson, 2001: 308).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The Ninjas, another government-funded PGM, were tasked with targeting local populations with terror and violence; the group was well equipped with supplies ranging from automatic pistols to night binoculars to knives and axes, thus allowing them to target the local populace (Robinson, 2001: 308). More broadly, many militias were intricately linked to the military and received direct military supervision (Kammen, 2001), thus enhancing the relative capabilities and reach of the Indonesian military in East Timor.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pro-government militias and civil war termination

Estancona

Reid

2021

Conflict Management and Peace Science

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Why do governments choose to fund pro-government militias (PGMs) if doing so could extend costly civil conflict? While PGMs are active in a majority of civil wars, their impact on conflict termination remains poorly understood. We argue that the choice to fund PGMs is a strategic one for states and part of their efforts to influence wartime dynamics and conflict termination. We hypothesize that PGMs’ impact on conflict termination is conditional on whether they are government funded. Government-funded PGMs help states to ward off costly negotiations and encourage the rebellion's gradual dissolution. Using competing risks analyses on civil wars ending between 1981 and 2007, we find robust evidence that PGM funding affects conflict outcomes.

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“…After a brief power struggle between emerging political parties, independence was declared in 1975, just days before an invasion by Indonesia. The ensuing twenty-four years were characterised by resistance by Timorese guerrilla fighters in the face of brutality and unspeakable human rights abuses, internal displacement, famine and further exploitation of the country's resources (Kammen, 2001). However, Indonesia also built much infrastructure, including schools.…”

Section: Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…East Timorese citizens overwhelmingly voted for independence in a referendum overseen by the UN amid intimidation and manipulation by Indonesian militias. In retaliation, Indonesian military hacked and burned its way back across the border, leaving a decimated country to pick up the pieces (Fry, 2014;Kammen, 2001). Timor oan 14 had finally gained their independence through unceasing resistance and at great personal cost.…”

Section: Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

The plans and aspirations of teenage students in semi-rural Timor-Leste

Mitchell¹

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<p>While there is wide agreement that education supports development, there is also much scholarship to suggest that the potential benefits of education are only fully realised when education systems are well-adapted to local needs. Systems left by colonial in newly independent developing countries, for instance, can impede the achievement of their development goals. This project focused on the plans and aspirations of secondary school students in Ermera subdistrict, a semi-rural region of Timor-Leste, in order to explore the relationship between education and local livelihoods. Three case study communities in Ermera vila, Ponilala and Mirtutu were examined. Guided by the concept of the ‘good life’, I sought to reveal what students, parents and educators hope to get out of education and development. This enabled me to assess whether the schooling that students are receiving is supporting their future goals. The methodology combined ethnographic observation with other qualitative and quantitative data collection. It comprised twenty-two weeks in-country: volunteering, and conducting surveys and interviews. The ensuing data analysis draws on education theory, alternative development theory, and decolonisation theory. Overall I found that the secondary school curriculum is Western-oriented, and focused on getting students into university rather than on preparing them for the kinds of lives they are likely to lead. Students overwhelmingly aspire to university or vocational study, once they leave school. Conceptions of the good life in the three communities centre on social connectedness and opportunities for the next generation. While there is an evident disconnect between the content of available secondary education and local livelihood realities, there have been successful initiatives from within all three communities to expand education over the past twenty years to include local skills and epistemologies. An extension of these efforts to create a more diverse education, with the inclusion of agriculture as a learning topic, could give students the best chance of gaining secure work and leading comfortable lives in the future.</p>

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The Trouble With Normal: The Indonesian Military, Paramilitaries, and the Final Solution in East Timor

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Conflict and Peace Studies in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Conflict and Peace Studies in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Pro-government militias and civil war termination

The plans and aspirations of teenage students in semi-rural Timor-Leste

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