As Indonesia buckles under tremendous international pressure and agrees to invite UN peacekeeping forces into East Timor, a United Methodist minister who was in East Timor to observe a UN-sponsored vote on self-determination called for the swift dispatch of UN troops into the territory.

"I think that an international peacekeeping force needs to be sent into East Timor immediately. Otherwise, the East Timorese simply will be massacred. They killed hundreds of people in Dili [capital of East Timor] in the past two or three days. Who knows what's going on in the rural areas where there are no foreigners to witness the slaughter? It's probably much worse there," said the Rev. John Chamberlin, pastor of First St. John's United Methodist Church in San Francisco in an interview on September 7. "The international community has a responsibility for stopping the genocide being committed against the people of East Timor."

Media reports indicate that more than 200,000 East Timorese have fled East Timor or have been forcibly evacuated by the Indonesian security forces, driven by intensified violence and mayhem perpetrated by Indonesia-backed militias. Buildings, churches and houses have been burned, including the house of Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. Several refugees who had sought refuge in his house have been killed. Nuns and priests have been among the hundreds deliberately massacred recently.

"The will of the East Timorese people has clearly been expressed. Despite a campaign of terror and intimidation waged by the Indonesian military and their proxy militias, 78.5 per cent of the East Timorese voted for independence. Is the international community now going to just stand idly by while Indonesia moves in and slaughters them for voting their conscience?" Rev. Chamberlin asked.

"We saw pro-autonomy [i.e. pro-Indonesia] militias go on a rampage as soon as we got there. Thursday night before the election, I was sitting in the Turismo hotel when I heard shots fired and explosions in the Becora district. The militias took the main street, attacked the CNRT (pro-independence group) headquarters, and destroyed that. When journalists at the Hotel Dili came out to film this assault, the militias fired shots at them and chased them back into the hotel. A member of our delegation saw a pro-independence supporter a policeman shot in the head brought by his friends to UNAMET [UN mission in East Timor] headquarters where he died later. An election observer from the Indonesian Communion of Churches in Indonesia saw a young man being shot and hacked to death," recounted Rev. Chamberlin.

A few days after returning to the United States, Rev. Chamberlin received the news that one of their hosts in East Timor, the Rev. Francisco de Vasconcelos Ximenes was shot dead while accompanying refugees who had been forced out of a Protestant church in Dili. Rev. de Vasconcelos Ximenes was the General Secretary of the Christian (Protestant) Church of East Timor.

Rev. Chamberlin also appealed for humanitarian aid and for humanitarian agencies to be allowed access into East Timor and into refugee camps where the refugees have been evacuated and are being forcibly kept.

"All the churches were bursting at the seams with refugees by the time our delegation was evacuated. We had a growing number of refugee families staying with us the entire time we were there," he added. Now many of the churches have been burned and the refugees have escaped to the hills or have been placed in militia-run camps in the adjacent Indonesian province of West Timor. Intimidation of the refugees by the militias, including the targetting of known pro-independence supporters in the camps continue to be reported.

The situation of East Timor was a subject in last year's Ecumenical Mission Study focus on Indonesia. A former Portuguese colony, East Timor was on the road to decolonization when Indonesia invaded it in 1975. The brutality of the invasion and subsequent occupation of East Timor resulted in the loss of over 200,000 lives, approximately one third of its population. Ten United Nations resolutions condemned the invasion and illegal occupation of East Timor by Indonesia. Even today, the United Nations still regards East Timor as a “non-governing" territory.

When former Indonesian president Suharto was forced to step down last year, his vice president, B.J. Habibie became president. In January, President Habibie announced that the East Timorese would be allowed to choose whether or not they wish to remain within Indonesia. This announcement paved the way for the UN-supervised popular consultation that took place on August 30.

The ecumenical observer mission participated in by Rev. Chamberlin was organized by the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace (APC) in Washington, D.C. and partially financed by the General Board of Global Ministries. This was in keeping with the 1996 General Conference resolution supporting “a process of bringing about self-determination for East Timor." The resolution also calls on the U.S. government to pressure Indonesia to withdraw its military occupation forces from East Timor.

In a press briefing held in Washington D.C. on September 13, Ms. Miriam Young, APC Executive Director spoke about “being traumatized and shocked" by her experience but nonetheless, she urged that “we need to save what is left of East Timor,"

Furthermore, she supports the call of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson for the creation of a war crimes tribunal to try those responsible for the atrocities and acts of genocide committed against the people of East Timor.