East Timorese Vote /Militias Interfere With a Cash Crop: Coffee Industry Embroiled in a Tug of War

By Michael Richardson
Published: August 27, 1999

ESTADO, East Timor— Beneath the shade of the forest, the steep hillsides are quilted with the dark green leaves of the coffee trees. Mist curls through the canopies, and a fine rain soaks the undergrowth.

Despite the cold, damp weather, Eusebio Diaz Quintas is happy to show a reporter part of a flourishing industry that has helped raise living standards in one of the poorest places in the world.

The industry could continue to flourish, no matter which way the East Timorese vote Monday to determine whether their disputed territory should remain part of Indonesia with wide-ranging autonomy or should secede and become independent.

But parts of the highlands are strongholds of militias, many formed with the encouragement of the military, that have mounted a campaign of murder and intimidation against suspected supporters of independence to try to ensure that the province does not secede.

The coffee industry is caught in this tug of war. Some members and employees of the local cooperative have been killed. A number of its trucks have been robbed and their drivers beaten.

Read more: East Timorese Vote /Militias Interfere With a Cash Crop: Coffee Industry Embroiled in a Tug of War

Source: The New York Time
http://www.nytimes.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/27/news/27iht-coffee.2.t.html