"Big countries with powerful military machines should not be permitted to invade, occupy, and brutalize their peaceful neighbors." Then Secretary of State James Baker uttered these words two years ago in explaining why we, the United States, decided to go to war against Iraq. But for more than 17 years, this nation has not only tolerated but enthusiastically supported an invasion that, in its cruelty, dwarfs Saddam Hussein's infamous annexation of Kuwait.

The victimized nation is East Timor, a tiny country located in the Southeast Pacific and slightly north of Australia. A beautiful island with a diverse array of indigenous cultures and languages, East Timor was colonized and brutally exploited by the Portugese for more than 400 years. However, when the Portugese empire collapsed in the 1970s, East Timor finally gained its independence and instituted a democratic government.

Then the catastrophic occurred. On Dec. 7, 1975, Indonesia ruthlessly stormed the shores of neighboring East Timor and started a savage war against the population there. Over the next five years, an estimated 200,000 people (one third of the population!) were killed by shootings, bombings and systematic starvation policies carried out by the Indonesian military. Defenseless civilians were massacred by the thousands as Indonesia sought to establish hegemony over the Timorese. The final radio broadcast from Dili, the capital of East Timor, stated the following: "The Indonesian forces are killing indiscriminately. Women and children are being shot in the streets. We are all going to be killed. I repeat, we are all going to be killed. . .This is an appeal for international help. . .Please help us. . ."

The United Nations responded to the Indonesian invasion by swiftly passing resolutions calling for Indonesia's withdrawal from East Timor and for respect for the Timorese people's right to self-determination. Since the 1975 invasion, the U.N. passed 10 resolutions reaffirming East Timor's right to independence. However, the United States and the other Western powers moved to undermine any international effort to alleviate the Timorese people's plight. Besides frequently voting against the resolutions, the U.S. resorted to backroom dealing and arm-twisting. A look at the memoirs of then U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and current New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan reveals the genuine intentions of our nation's elite. Upon matter-of-factly stating that within two months after the invasion the murder count was ". . .10 percent of the population, almost the proportion of casualties experienced by the Soviet Union during the Second World War," Moynihan proceeds to say that "The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. This task was given to me, and I carried it forth with no inconsiderable success."

The U.S. role goes deeper than sabotaging U.N efforts to aid East Timor. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had visited Indonesia the day before and had told the effective ruler of Indonesia, General Suharto, that "the United States understands Indonesia's position" on East Timor, thereby giving Indonesia tacit approval to conduct the murderous annexation. Moreover the United States provided 90 percent of the weapons for the Indonesian military. M16s, OV-10 Bronco counterinsurgency aircraft, and other U.S. armaments were sold to Indonesia to enable its army to brutalize the Timorese. Military aid to Indonesia doubled in the years following the invasion, a fact hard to reconcile with our proclaimed devotion to the goals of human rights and self-determination for all peoples.

At a time when the mass killings were approaching genocidal levels, a State Department official summarized Washington's view as follows: "The United States wants to keep its relationship with Indonesia close and friendly. We regard Indonesia as a friendly, nonaligned nation -- a nation we do a lot of business with."

The United States has certainly not acted out of character on the issue of East Timor. According to a recent report from the Center for Defense Information, the U.S. continues to lead the world in the sales of weapons to foreign countries, accounting for more than half the world market. Of the 180 nations in the world, Washington sells arms regularly to 142 nations, of which, 59 have authoritarian governments. Over the last decade,"the U.S. exported weapons valued at $135 Billion; more than half, $81 Billion, went to arm authoritarian governments." Ruthless regimes like those in El Salvador, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Morocco and Kuwait continue to receive millions of dollars worth of U.S. weapons, which they often use against their own civilian population to perpetuate undemocratic rule. While sales by the former Soviet Union have declined considerably, U.S. arms exports remain consistently high. In light of such facts, the U.S. claim to be the "Leader of the Free World" is only cynical self-deception. Rather, if the media is so willing to label the Somalian leaders as "warlords," perhaps it should take a closer look at Washington.

The situation in East Timor remains one of unimaginable horror. In November 1991, Indonesian troops methodically lowered their M16s and shot into a peaceful funeral procession in front of Western observers. More than 200 Timorese, including many schoolchildren and their mothers, were killed and the Indonesian government proceeded to round up witnesses for beatings and torture. While Bush expressed indignation at Saddam Hussein's crime, U.S. arms flowed unabated to Indonesia, reaching more than $250 million in 1991. As long as the United States refuses to end the sale of weapons, it remains complicit in Indonesia's continued reign of terror against East Timor.

Sources available at the Collegian upon request. The campus group Students' Peace Initiative is circulating petitions to end U.S. arms sales to Indonesia.