ITS remoteness does not diminish the horror unleashed in East Timor, where hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands are herded as refugees in schools, churches and public buildings while anti-independence militias go on the rampage with the Indonesian military's blessing and assistance.

But this is more than a spontaneous backlash against last week's referendum in which the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to become independent rather than acquire autonomy while remaining within Indonesia.

The murder, violence and terror taking place in this former Portuguese colony, seized by Indonesia more than 20 years ago, is a deliberate and orchestrated effort by the Indonesian military to once more deprive East Timor of its freedom - something that its people democratically demanded in the referendum despite the menace displayed by the pro-Jakarta militias to the electorate and to the UN officials supervising the vote.

Now, with threat and menace failing to cow the East Timorese, it is to violence and bloodshed that those defeated by, and opposed to, democracy turn. They are trying to create a chaos that they can dress up as a civil war, permitting Indonesia - a state long notorious for brutal repression, corruption and dictatorial rule despite recent popular rebellion - to intervene militarily and so effectively cancel the legitimate decision of the East Timorese to break away.

We have already seen Indonesia's denial of democracy and excuse for its transparent plot to retain East Timor displayed in the claims that the UN officials were involved in the rigging of the referendum.

It must not be allowed to get away with this political thuggery and corruption.

It was UN hand-wringing and inaction over the Indonesian invasion and annexing of East Timor 24 years ago that has convinced it that the international community will do nothing once more.

The western democracies - including Britain whose so-called moral foreign policy has not prevented it approving massive arms deals with Indonesia - should lead the international community in making Indonesia a pariah and punishing it with ostracism, total trade sanctions and swift military intervention.

The repression in East Timor is as bad, if not worse, than that for which NATO went to war in Kosovo.

The need for justice and the safety of the people there is just as great.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.