The following resolution on East Timor was adopted at the California- Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, held last month in Sacramento, California. The California-Nevada region is comprised of all United Methodist congregations in Northern California and most of Nevada. This was the second consecutive year in which the regional body adopted a policy statement on the issue of East Timor. The 1994 resolution was sponsored by the congregation of First St. John's United Methodist Church in San Francisco.
Methodists are the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
WHEREAS Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975 and continuing occupation of that country have resulted in the death of approximately 200,000 Timorese (one-third of the population) according to Amnesty International estimates, making it the worst slaughter relative to population since the Holocaust; and
WHEREAS the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council have never recognized Indonesia's purported annexation of East Timor and have passed numerous resolutions calling for Indonesia to withdraw from East Timor; and
WHEREAS the Indonesian government refuses to honor these resolutions, and continues to occupy East Timor and commit gross violations of human rights there; and
WHEREAS the Indonesian government has displaced Timorese families from their ancestral homes and has moved over 100,000 Indonesians into East Timor through their policy of "transmigration" in an attempt to dilute the Timorese population and destroy their culture; and
WHEREAS many Timorese are now incarcerated in Indonesian prisons for engaging in peaceful, nonviolent protest against the occupation of their country; and
WHEREAS in October 1992, the United States Congress passed legislation eliminating military training (IMET) aid to Indonesia in response to its actions in East Timor; and
WHEREAS in March 1993, the United States government reversed its previous position and supported a strongly worded resolution passed by the United Nations Human Rights Commission criticizing Indonesian human rights violations in East Timor; and
WHEREAS the United States refused to allow Jordan to sell U.S. fighter jets to Indonesia in July 1993 in reaction to Indonesia's human rights violations in East Timor; and
WHEREAS the United States government continues to sell and allow the commercial sale of U.S. weapons to Indonesia; and
WHEREAS it was revealed in December 1993 that the United States Defense Department continues to provide IMET military training to Indonesian officers despite the 1992 Congressional action aimed at ending that training; and
WHEREAS the United States government is not yet working to implement the United Nations resolutions calling for withdrawal of the Indonesian military from East Timor and for self-determination for the people of East Timor; and
WHEREAS in June 1993, the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church expressed its profound concern for East Timor by adopting a resolution that called for a cut-off of all U.S. aid and arms sales to Indonesia until Indonesia complied with U.N. resolutions, withdrew its military forces from East Timor, and allowed a U.N.-supervised plebiscite in East Timor; and
WHEREAS the Indonesian government has failed to comply with any of these conditions; and
WHEREAS in his August 1993 pastoral column in the United Methodist Review, Bishop Melvin Talbert asked UMC congregations to take up the issue of East Timor "as a priority"; and
RECOGNIZING our moral and religious duty to respond to acts of inhumanity and genocide and to rescue a people, a nation, and a culture from annihilation;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church again calls on the President of the United States and the U.S. Congress to take immediate administrative and legislative steps to halt all United States military aid and assistance (including IMET training), economic aid, and weapons sales (both commercial and government-to-government) to Indonesia until the Indonesian government:
1. Ends all forms of inhumane treatment in East Timor, including torture, extra-judicial execution, and arbitrary arrest and imprisonment;
2. Permits unrestricted access to East Timor by international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Asia Watch; and
3. Complies with United Nations Security Council resolutions 384 and 389, withdraws its armed forces from East Timor, and allows a United Nations supervised plebiscite in East Timor to facilitate a process of genuine decolonization and self-determination; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Conference Secretary be instructed to immediately send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to the U.S. Senators from California and Nevada, to each Member of Congress from Northern California and Nevada, and to the appropriate editors of the major newspapers in both states; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church urges its bishop, pastors, and member congregations to adopt the cause of East Timor as a social justice priority, to educate themselves about East Timor, and to communicate their individual and collective concerns regarding East Timor on a regular basis to the President of the United States and to their U.S. Senators and Members of Congress, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church urges the General Board of Church and Society and the General Board of Global Ministries to make the issue of East Timor a priority for social action and mission.