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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (54929)	9/9/1999 7:17:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Is there also an element of ethnic conflict, as in Kosovo, or is it mainly economic and land issues? It is a colonial residue, more analogous to African conflict than European. Before the colonists arrived, the entire area was nominally controlled by the great Javanese empires, which had largely crumbled by the time colonization started, leaving the islands occupied by small sultanates and separate tribal groups. Islam was in the process of moving east, taking over the loosely observed Hindu/animist mix that preceded it. The Dutch took most of what is now Indonesia, but the Portuguese maintained an enclave on East Timor, which they Catholicized, but did little else to develop. There is no real ethnic difference, but some marked cultural and religious ones. Economically it is meaningless: no significant resources and very little useful land. It is primarily an emotional issue for Indonesians: maintenance of the territorial integrity of the country, elimination of a colonial residue (the Indonesians loathed the Dutch bitterly, and are still very suspicious of pinks of any kind), and restoration of the (largely imaginary) boundaries of Java in its past glorious days. if the non-East Timorese do leave there will be few professionally educated and trained people to fill the voids. Can you verify this? True. It can be said that this is the fault of the Indonesians, who have done little or nothing to provide education and services on East Timor, but it is nonetheless true. An independent East Timor would be totally dependent on the international community, probably for decades. I read that Australia is indeed thinking of sending in troops. Do you know anything more about this? I doubt that they will send troops unless the Indonesian government agrees to accept them without resistance. This would be a bitter, bitter, pill for the Indonesian military, and I would call it better than 50:50 odds of a coup d'etat, and shit hitting the fan bigtime.