Lisbon, 4 February 1976
O.LB708 SECRET ROUTINE
Portuguese Timor
We have noted from O.JA44531 that Guicciardi is hoping the Timor issue will be defused by the passage of time and from O.CH3163282 that he has been irritated with Portugal’s latest protest to the Security Council concerning renewed Indonesian aggression. In considering the Timor question after Guicciardi’s departure from the area, it is our assessment that Portugal is likely to try and keep the issue alive at the United Nations for a while yet. We believe that Portugal’s two principal objectives are to recover their prisoners and to seek to embarrass Indonesia as much as possible by emphasising the illegality of its presence in Timor and by maintaining the international pressure on Indonesia to withdraw. The Portuguese however do not harbour any illusions about the likelihood of an Indonesian withdrawal.
- Timor could also have important effects on Foreign Minister Antunes policy towards the Third World. The recent deterioration in Portugal’s relations with Luanda and Lourengo Marques3 has left his Third World policy in tatters, especially in Africa, and a public stand at the United Nations in favour of self-determination in Timor is a way of salvaging what is left of it.
[NAA: Al0463, 801/13/11/1, xx]
- 1 27 January. It reported comments made to officers of the Embassy, Jakarta, by Winspeare Guicciardi. He had expressed the view that ‘only the “passage of time” will allow the Security Council to divest itself of the problem of Portuguese Timor’. He was critical of Portugal for taking the Timor issue to the Security Council when the ‘far more serious’ issue of Angola was not before the Council. Winspeare had added that there was a deep-seated antagonism towards Portugal in East Timor because of a perception that Portugal had deserted the territory.
- 2 Cablegram CH316328 communicated the text of Document 415.
- 3 The capitals of Angola and Mozambique respectively. Poor relations between Portugal and these two newly independent states were the consequence of over ten years of bitter guerrilla warfare and a grudging hand-over of power.