General Wiranto was in control of the armed forces during the Timor vote Suharto's priority was economic development, and he used the armed forces to crush any form of dissent that threatened it. When the Portuguese withdrew from East Timor in 1975, Indonesia was prepared to move in on the nod and wink of western powers - concerned that the neglected outpost of the crumbling Portuguese empire was leaning dangerously to the left. There was no opportunity for opposition from inside Indonesia either. Despite the active interest of the international press, East Timor remained until relatively recently a foreign policy problem most Indonesians either did not know much about or did not want to know about. The size of the Indonesian armed forces remains small compared to the size of the population - now in excess of 200m.
Military expenditure is low compared to other countries in the region.
Unable to really defend a country of Indonesia's size and geographic complexity, the armed forces concentrated on countering internal threats. Its methods have traditionally been defended by tired anti-communist rhetoric and its soldiers operated within a culture of impunity. Nowhere was that culture more evident than in East Timor - a territory closed off to the outside world until the early 1990s. Once the army got in, the atrocities mounted. Aerial bombardment, mass executions, torture, imprisonment, and disappearances were reported.