<P> During this period, allegations of Indonesian use of chemical weapons arose, as villagers reported maggots appearing on crops after bombing attacks . Fretilin radio claimed Indonesian planes dropped chemical agents, and several observers--including the Bishop of Dili--reported seeing napalm dropped on the countryside . The UN's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor, based on interviews with over 8,000 witnesses, as well as Indonesian military papers and intelligence from international sources, confirmed that the Indonesians used chemical weapons and napalm to poison food and water supplies in Fretilin controlled areas during the "encirclement and annihilation" campaign . </P> <P> While brutal, the Indonesian' encirclement and annihilation' campaign of 1977--1978 was effective in that it broke the back of the main Fretilin militia . The capable Timorese President and military commander, Nicolau Lobato, was shot and killed by helicopter - borne Indonesian troops on 31 December 1978 . </P> <P> As a result of the destruction of food crops, many civilians were forced to leave the hills and surrender to the TNI . Often, when surviving villagers came down to lower - lying regions to surrender, the military would execute them . Those who were not killed outright by TNI troops were sent to receiving centers for vetting, which had been prepared in advance in the vicinity of local TNI bases . In these transit camps, the surrendered civilians were registered and interrogated . Those who were suspected of being members of the resistance were killed . </P> <P> These centers were often constructed of thatch huts with no toilets . Additionally, the Indonesian military barred the Red Cross from distributing humanitarian aid and no medical care was provided to the detainees . As a result, many of the Timorese - weakened by starvation and surviving on small rations given by their captors - died of malnutrition, cholera, diarrhea and tuberculosis . By late 1979, between 300,000 and 370,000 Timorese had passed through these camps . After a period of three months, the detainees were resettled in "strategic hamlets" where they were imprisoned and subjected to enforced starvation . Those in the camps were prevented from traveling and cultivating farmland and were subjected to a curfew . The UN truth commission report confirmed the Indonesian military's use of enforced starvation as a weapon to exterminate the East Timorese civilian population, and that large numbers of people were "positively denied access to food and its sources". The report cited testimony from individuals who were denied food, and detailed destruction of crops and livestock by Indonesian soldiers . It concluded that this policy of deliberate starvation resulted in the deaths of 84,200 to 183,000 Timorese . One church worker reported five hundred East Timorese dying of starvation every month in one district . </P>

In 1975 the east timorese voted to become part of indonesia