Interesting, but not to the point. The question was about the justification for Chomsky's comment that "Today there's strong opposition to US support for Indonesian slaughter in East Timor [in spite of the fact that] there are no American body bags" -- and that's clearly true.
On Fri, 21 May 1999, rc-am wrote:
> >and the upcoming referendum in East Timor
> >resulted from the brave Timorese resistance joined to a vocal opposition
> >strong enough to bring it to world attention (as the Nobel prizes showed).
>
> bosh. the upcoming referendum, and the swiftly unfolding campaign of
> violence and 'hamletting', is a carefully calculated attempt to frighten
> the hell out of the opposition to Indonesian rule in east timor. it is
> a sign of the weakness of the resistance; as the recent agreement b/n
> Portugal and indonesia brokered by the UN was a sign of its military
> weakness: it places the onus on Falantil (Fretilin) to disarm,
> apparently alongside the disarming of the paramilitaries, who of course
> can be re-armed at the drop of a hat. the resistance is indeed brave,
> but unfortunately, it is not in a position to do much at present other
> than denounce the atrocities committed daily by the paramilitaries in
> the lead up to the first (and probably last) referendum. Falantil do
> not want to fight the paramilitaries, they do not want to allow this to
> be transformed from a struggle against Indonesian rule to one of 'civil
> war', but I fear they have been outflanked. if nothing changes in the
> lead up to the referendum, I would be astounded if there isn't a vote
> for autonomy (remembering that this would mean no subsequent vote on
> independence).
>
> the east timorese resistance is either terrified and gone underground,
> has fled, or is in exile. it is not strong. at present it is very
> weak; and pretending that it is strong is only an excuse not to pay
> attention.
>
> Angela
> ---
> rcollins at netlink.com.au
>
>
>