Friends -
As part of the international effort to maintain pressure on the UN and the Government of Indonesia to act immediately to stop the massacre in East Timor, we are circulating this statement.
Please sign on and return the statement to m.mezzera at focusweb.org by 5pm Bangkok time on Thursday 9 September. We will consolidate the list and fax the statement to the UN, ASEAN, the Government of Indonesia and APEC heads of state immediately. Please use the statement in any other way that is useful.
Thankyou.
Nicola Bullard
Sept. 7, 1999
To Secretary General Kofi Annan. United Nations; Secretary General Rodolfo Severino, Association of Southeast Asian Nations; all heads of state; the community of nations
End the Terror in East Timor
The world failed East Timor once, in 1975, when it offered little protest to the bloody annexation of that country by Indonesia. Key international actors, including Australia, the United States, and ASEAN, either supported the takeover behind the scenes or tacitly approved of it. For the next 24 years, many governments engaged in a conspiracy of silence as over 200,000 Timorese lost their lives under Jakarta’s harsh rule.
The world cannot afford to fail the people of East Timor again. As Indonesian troops and Indonesia-supported militiamen wreak mayhem on the people after the historic vote for independence last week, it is imperative that we act to prevent an act of ethnic cleansing on the scale of Bosnia and Kosovo.
The United Nations must immediately constitute an armed peacekeeping mission and send it to Timor within hours. Every minute now counts if we are to prevent a massive massacre.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must condemn the Indonesian government’s abetting the massacre and offer police and troops from its member countries—with the exception of Indonesia--to serve as the core of the peacekeeping mission.
Indonesia must immediately withdraw its police and soldiers, disarm the militiamen, and stop expelling Timorese from their homeland on the pretext of helping them escape the violence.
Indonesia must immediately recognize the overwhelming vote for independence, release Xanana Gusmao, and allow Gusmao, Jose Ramos Horta, and other key Timorese leaders to freely travel through Indonesia and to East Timor to participate in constituting a government.
The UN General Assembly must convoke a special session to immediately recognize East Timor’s independence and impose sanctions on Indonesia for failing to provide the order and security that it promised in the Tripartite Agreement of May 5, 1999.
The big powers, as well as Australia and New Zealand, must refrain from taking unilateral military action, the short term gains of which would be outweighed by the long- term instability to which such an action would plunge Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
The international community must act now to spare a small nation whose identity was forged in 24 years of heroic defiance of repression from further bloodshed.
Council for Alternative Security in the Asia-Pacific Focus on the Global South
Focus on the Global South (FOCUS) c/o CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok 10330 THAILAND Tel: 662 218 7363/7364/7365/7383 Fax: 662 255 9976 E-mail: N.Bullard at focusweb.org Web Page http://www.focusweb.org