Airgram A-65: Conditions and Attitudes in East Nusatenggara, 3 Agustus 1966

=== [PDF page 1] === CONFIDENTIAL a-65 CONFIDENTIAL DEPARTMENT OF STATE INFO =: MEDAN, SURABAYA Amembassy DJAKARTA August 3, 1966 Conditions and Attitudes in East Nusatenggera Mr. James Fox, an American anthropologist who has lived for the past year and a half on the island of Roti near Timor in East Nusatenggara, and his wife recently called at the Embassy on their way to Oxford University in England. Mr. Fox, assisted by his wife, gave the reporting officer an unusually perceptive and coherent account of political events and attitudes in Kast Nusatenggara. While some of Mr. Fox's observations apply only to East Nusatenggera, his account may also be regarded in many respects as a kaleidoscope of events in provincial Indonesia during the last tumltuos year. His observations on the suppression of the PKZ, the killings and local attitudes toward the Army probably are applicable to mich of the country. Aftermath of the September 30 Movement. In Roti, where the Foxes actually lived, conmmmnist influence was strong only on the western end of the island. A few weeks before September 30, a Javanese communist namad Sukirno arrived from Djakarta to take charge of the local Party. It is widely believed that Sukirno brought some kind of instructions for a lecal followup to impending developments in Djakarta and the Army has reportedly discovered a list of intended entiecoummist victims in the area, A emall Aruy detachment arrived in Boti only in January or February to investigate "Gestapu" activities but limited their punitive actions to execution of Sukirno and the local PKI leader on Roti, The Army then withdrew but returned in mid-March. This wisit resulted in the execution in Roti of between 40 and 50 local Roti commmnists plus another 30 commmnists from the nearby island Group 3 - Downgrade each 12 yrs; not automatically declassified, CONFIPENTTL. CONFIDENTIAL POL:RJMaxtens/ac 8/1/66 POL: MVIrent Fa herreratianir na DECLASSIFIED Authority INO 67 291 [re-OCR’d Oct 18 2026: tesseract 200 dpi, replaces earlier text for this page] === [PDF page 2] === Page 2 CONFIPANT IAL 4-65 Djakarta of Saw, A third Arzy visit occurred in June resulting in the execution of one or two additional PKI members who had earlier evaded capture but had been apprehended in the interim. These visits, especially the second (March) visit, gave rise to a feeling of great tension in the population and rumors were rife of exacutions far in excess of those that actually occurred. Rumors of widespread killings were rife throughout East Nusatenggara, in fact. Mr. Fox heard one western missionary from Timor report that some 30,000 people had been executed in that island. Since he felt that this figure wes unreasonable, Fox traveled through Timor talking to as many people as possible and also sought information on executions in other islands of Bast Rusatenggara. He feels that approximately 800 persons, or at a maximum 1,000 persons, were executed in Timor, Sumba, Alor, Roti, Saw end in other smaller islands comprising all of East Nusatenggara other than Flores. Mr. Fox had no reliable information on executions in Flores which, however, has several times the population of all the other islands of Bast Nusatengzara combined. Mr. Fox said that the PKI was better established in Alor than some of the other islands and that 105 comamnists were executed thera which was a higher proportion of the population than elsewhere. He said that the top coummist in East Nusatenggara, Tobias Paulinus Rissi, is still alive and being held at the prison in Kupang. Risei was First Secretary of the East tusatenggara CDB end a member of the PKI Central Committee. ttitudes Toward the « The image of the Indonesian Army has declined Tadically in Kast Nusatenggara since September 30. The area is largely Christian and contains a diverse assortment of non-Javanese peoples. The Army units that moved into the area since Septenber 30 are composed of Moslems from Java and have seemed to the local population to be a foreign occupation force, The Arwy has apparently done Little to overcome this initial liability and has acted in a heavy-handed mamer without wuch regard for local sensibilitias, According to Mr. Fox the Army engaged in sumptuous feasts day after day at the expense of the local population, resulting especially in a substantial depletion in the island's livesteck (goat) population. In the provincial capital of Kupang, corruption was estinsted to have increased ten-fold since September 30 and the Army, which no longer faced restraints from other power factors, was Largely responsible, Several shiploads of rice from abroad that were unloaded in Kupsng went into Army hands and could be purchased by the population only at exorbitant prices. Since periods of famine occur from time to time in different areas, the contrast between the highifiving Javanese military forces and the local population was marked. The Army visit to Roti {nm March that tock the lives of some 70 or &0 cCommmnists was followed, for exemle, by a period in April of considerable hunger. CONFIDENTIAL, [re-OCR’d Oct 18 2026: tesseract 200 dpi, replaces earlier text for this page] === [PDF page 3] === Page 3 CONFIDENTIAL 4-65 Djakarta Attitudes Toward Portuguese Timor. Mr. Fox said there was considerable speculation before Septemer about a likely Indonesian invasion of Portuguese Timor within the not so distant future, that is, within the year, Mr. Yox emphasized that this was low-level speculation among junior officers and enlisted men and equivalent layers of the civilian bureaucracy rather than statements by responsible senior officials. People in Indonesian Timor generally regard Portuguese Timor as @ kind of paradise. This view ie based primarily on the lack of consumer goods in Indonesian Timor and a considerable esount of smuggling between the two areas.. Goods brought in from Portuguese Timer not only include superior versions of such everyday necessities as soap but also included eattle, which for soma reason are plentiful in the Portuguese half of the island but not in the Indonesian half, American Bilt Harbor. The harbor development near Kupang being constructed under en Ai) contract by em American firm was nearly completed when Mr. Fox left. Although the project was greatly admired by the local inhabitants because of the superior quality of the materials and facilities, it would probably not be usable since the harbor was located several miles from town and had neither drinking water nor adequate road connections with Rupang. Indonesian attempts to drill wells had failed due to a lack of modarn equipment and little had been done to build an adequate road to the city, Both of these tasks were outside the scope of the AID project but the Indonesian Government had not been able to fulfill ite side of the bargain. Mr, Fox observed that, prior to September 30, it was widely believed by the Indonesian population that the port was intended to be a staging base Sr an invasion of Portuguese Timor. (Mr. Fox was describing popular attitudes, and not necessarily official intentions, as he himself emphasized.) Other Political Attitudes, Mr, Fox said that Protestant groups in East Nusatenggara had a lingering nostalgia for the old RMS or Republic of the South Moluccas that had rejected accession to the Indonesian Republic in 1950, Although this santiment for separation from Indonesia and union with the Moluccas was an underlying attitude, there was no organized effort to pursue these aims as far as he knaw, Protestants are concentrated in the western parts of Indonesian Timor and in Roti, incidentally, while the areas nearer to Portuguese Timor are Catholic. (Fox considered the eastern Catholic people near Portuguese Timor to be highly intelligent while the central group which was also Protestant waa rather backward and “stupid."} In spite of the lingering EMS sympathy, Protestants in East Wusatenzgara paradoxically tended to cooperate closely with the PEI because of their everriding fear of an Islamic state. The Catholics tended to econperate with the Moslem parties end in general were much more reconciled to Indonesian nationalien. CONFIDENTIAL [re-OCR’d Oct 18 2026: tesseract 200 dpi, replaces earlier text for this page] === [PDF page 4] === Page 4 CONFIDEOITIAL A-65 Djakarta Although the Timorese hinterland is Christian, Kupang itself is composed largely of Javanese bureaucrats, most of whom are either genuinely or noainally Moslem, The PNI is still strong among Javanese or other non-Christian groups and, in Fox's opinion, was even more radical than the PKI before Septenber 30, Fox believed that the reason for this phenomenon waa that the PKI had consciously chosen to infiltrate its more radical members into the PSI while the regular PET machine was handled as a more routine and bureaucratic operation, The PNT has not been pursed since the September 30 affair ant ita organization renains largely intact including ite more radical leaders, he said. Misceltznsous. In discussing the area in more genaral teras, Fox said that the Large island of Bumba wae dry and very lightly populated. Timor too is not particularly fertile and has a relatively low population density, Flores is the most fertile, most heavily populated and most developed island fn East Musatenggara. Although it has three times the population of all the xest of the province, it could support a mich higher population yet. In Dutch times, Flores lagged behind the rest of the area in education and population skills but this trend has more than been reversed in recent years, [re-OCR’d Oct 18 2026: tesseract 200 dpi, replaces earlier text for this page] === [PDF page 5] === NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE National Security Archive, Suite 701, Gelman Library, The George Washington University, 2130 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C., 20037, Phone: 202/994-7000, Fax: 202/994-7005, nsarchiv@gwu.edu