At the age of 39, Ida Bagus Sudjana commanded a troop in Operation Lotus—marking the entry of the Indonesian Armed Forces into the territory of East Timor—in 1975. Amid sparse forests covering arid hills on the tip of Timor island, Sudjana stood aghast at the agonizing scenes of war. He witnessed pro-independence Fretilin fighters gunning down paratroopers who were trying to land. "They were just like birds dying in the air, gliding a