East Timor and Kosovo

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Chris wrote:
>but John's call goes on
>>>  Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1414.  Urge President
>>>Clinton to immediately suspend all further military and financial aid to
>>>Indonesia until the military and paramilitary violence is stopped. The
>>>U.S. must show strong support for East Timor's democratic decision to
>>>break away from Indonesia.
>
>This calls on US and other citizens to campaign not just against military
>aid but against financial aid. To campaign against financial aid means the
>politics of bankrupting Indonesia's foreign exchanges. It logically means
>not just using all of US hegemonic influence to delay the next conditional
>tranche IMF aid, whenever that is due, but to recall all outstanding IMF
>and other loans immediately.
>
>This demand has the the capacity to smash the economy of Indonesia, which
>has already been severely battered by the 1998 crisis.

Those who have called for stopping all aids, I think, have been doing so
betting that such threats are enough to make the Indonesian military and
government change its policy, not wishing to actually 'smash the economy of
Indonesia.'  I don't know if it's a wise bet, but it sure beats a call for
Western military intervention!  In any case, what's the point of 'smashing
the economy of Indonesia'?  What will it do for the East Timorese, popular
democratic movements in Indonesia that support the East Timorese
independence, etc.?

First smashing the Indonesian communists in the 60s, supporting the corrupt
regime for decades, and then sending in 'peace-keeping forces,' 'smashing
the economy of Indonesia,' and/or flattering themselves as 'anguished
humanitarians'.....  Such is the work of Western imperialism, which doesn't
require your on-line moral support.

Yoshie