Against the Grain: The East Timor Intervention

The principle of non-interference is an integral part of the ‘Asian Way’. Countries of the region have doggedly opposed any suggestion that state sovereignty should be softened by a new doctrine of ‘humanitarian intervention’. The participation of some of these countries in the 1999 intervention in East Timor – an action sanctioned by the United Nations for specifically humanitarian purposes – was thus out of character. But this departure, far from reflecting a re-evaluation of the doctrine, was a consequence of specific historical and political factors. Most important of these was the fact that the UN had never accepted the Indonesian incorporation of the territory as legitimate. Once the United States adopted a more critical attitude, after Australia pressured Indonesia to test local opinion on East Timor’s future, the internationalisation of the issue became inevitable. In the aftermath of the postballot militia violence, Indonesia’s uncertain transitional leadership could not resist calls for an intervention by peacekeepers. There are certainly lessons in the East Timor case for coalition operations and other interventions in the region. But the actions of the Australia-led coalition do not indicate a wider regional acceptance of the norm of humanitarian intervention.