Following the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre of East Timor protesters by occupying Indonesian forces, the Indonesian government retained Burson-Marsteller "to help improve the country's human rights and environmental image", according to the "Far Eastern Economic Review". Another contract was signed in 1996. The company was retained in total from 1992 to 1998. Over the six years that the company worked for the country's government, Burson-Marsteller promoted Indonesia's trade opportunities to encourage foreign investment and aided the country in its attempts to improve its human rights image.