They could not very well kill all of the Island's inhabitants.  That might finally raise the ire of the U.S., Canada, Australia or other so-called 'developed' societies.  No - they would ultimately stop at killing approximately one third of the Island's population.  The West can easily sleep at night.  The rest will starve to death quietly and with little gunfire and so with little flack from the international arena.  The Timorese will be denied access to agriculture.

The buffalos (Finally - I am given the answer by a group of students who have invited me to one of their meetings) have mostly been either killed for food (or simply slaughtered in a tactical move) by the Indonesian military or ultimately eaten by hungry Timorese families.

Also - the military has starkly denied the Timorese access to their land out of paranoia that while 'out planting food' other, more collusive acts such as supporting Timorese resistance forces in the hills may be at play.  And the military did not threaten lightly.  Murderous and tortuous acts have become so common place in East Timor that horrific sights like the ones that follow are readily exacted by many of the Island's residents as part of their support/resistance activities.  It is no wonder very few Timorese dared test the resolve of the military by venturing out and expanding agricultural areas.  While the Timorese knew that farming only the itty-bits of land that had the military 'ok' would likely lead to starvation, there remained at least hope of survival.  To test the resolve of the military necessarily meant death.

Unfortunately, a family need not actually engage in such 'collusive' activities.  Suspicion of such activities might be cause enough to have the military commit attrocities against your family - so if any of your extended family or friends were even the least suspected, you would not dare make a move to contact them for fear of being suspected as well.  In this manner, communities and families were systematically broken down and pitted against one another.  The basic of system of communication of agricultural knowledge and skill had been effectively disconnected.  It was classic military action straight out of the textbook - cut the enemy's communication and then divide them into defeatable pockets.

The following four pictures show the kind of ire that can be raised against a family.  If you do not wish to see the morbid sights, then please click on the 'skip to something nicer' link below