East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), American grassroots organization founded in 1991 that committed itself to “supporting rights, justice, and democracy in both East Timor and Indonesia.” After the UN-supervised vote for independence in 1999 and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in 2002, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) formally broadened its mandate to include the promotion of human rights in Aceh, West Papua, and elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago. Although the organization retained its original acronym, it officially changed its name in 2005 to reflect its expanded mission. ETAN is a member of the International Federation for East Timor, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) interested in that nation’s decolonization process.

With the approval of U.S. Pres. Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor on December 7, 1975. In the years of occupation that followed, an estimated 150,000 Timorese died in what a number of scholars have characterized as genocide. The United States remained a firm ally of Indonesia throughout most of this period, providing aid, diplomatic support, and military training to the Suharto regime. In the wake of a 1991 massacre of hundreds of funeral marchers by the Indonesian armed forces at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, ETAN was formed to oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Indonesia, to raise public awareness, and to support the Timorese struggle for independence.

In the intervening years between the organization’s formation and the establishment of East Timor, ETAN held lobby days for Congress and advocated (and monitored) legislative action on arms transfers and U.S. military training for Indonesia. The NGO also organized demonstrations, protests, and other direct actions to encourage the revision of U.S. policy toward Indonesia.