Making Them Indonesian—Child Transfers Out of East Timor

Van Klinken, a former volunteer with the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor, provides an account of the massive transfer of children out of East Timor to Indonesia to integrate them into Indonesian society. She collected stories from children about their experience at the hands of religious institutions, soldiers and other government actors, NGOs and privately owned foundations, mostly between 2003-2004. Each of the first four chapters includes both a general story about how transfers happened in these contexts and a particular child's story. She examines issues of racial and cultural purity and compares these stories of child transfers to examples in other regions, like Europe and Australia. Several appendices present quantitative data about her interviews and the transfers she documents. The text includes a glossary. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)