From: Seth Ackerman <SAckerman at FAIR.org> To: "'lbo-talk at lists.panix.com'" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Subject: RE: Chomsky speaks Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 12:21:15 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2448.0) Content-Type: text/plain;
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Michael Pollak wrote:
> Actually no. American pressure at the beginning of those two weeks --
> cutting off loans and military cooperation -- was pretty much the same at
> the end. The atrocities stopped with the arrival of Australian troops.
> (Or rather they stopped in East Timor. They continued a bit longer in the
> camps in West Timor, which were and are themselves a bit of an atrocity.)
>
> I think Chomsky's account, both here and in his writing during the events,
> have been a bit stuck in the past. A phone call would have made the
> difference in 1976 when the Indonesian goverment and military were tightly
> hierarchical and under the control of one man who was our boy. But this
> time the chain of command was much looser at all levels. In 1976 we would
> have encouraged an army coup at this point, or earlier, due to the real
> threat of Indonesia breaking up, which is still there. But we haven't
> done that this time. It's not clear how much we care. Where during the
> cold war there would have no question that security concerns over those
> damned precious sea lanes would have outweighed any human rights concerns.
>
East Timor and the United States:
An Interview with Allan Nairn
[from New Politics, vol. 7, no. 4 (new series), whole no. 28, Winter 2000]
Introduction
Ever since the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, the U.S. government has sought to back Jakarta while keeping news of the atrocities there out of the public eye. But the sustained efforts of grassroots activists and a few persistent writers and journalists have insured that East Timor could not be ignored.
In 1991, U.S. journalists Allan Nairn and Amy Goodman were in Dili, the capital of East Timor, covering a peaceful memorial procession, when Indonesian troops -- armed with U.S. weapons -- opened fire, killing some 270 people. Though Nairn was severely beaten, he and Goodman were able to get out alive and they spread the word of the massacre around the world. (A photojournalist hiding behind a tombstone was also able to smuggle out videotape of the slaughter.) Since then, Nairn and Goodman have been tireless campaigners on behalf of Timorese freedom. Though banned from ever returning to Indonesia or occupied East Timor, they have defied the bans to bring us continuing information on the heroic struggle of the Timorese people.
Following the Dili massacre, international East Timor activism picked up. In the United States, the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) was formed and it carried out a remarkable program of public education and lobbying. These and similar efforts in other countries were so successful in focusing attention on the situation in East Timor that in 1996 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Bishop Carlos Belo and JosÈ Ramos Horta, two leaders of the Timorese struggle.
Growing pressure led in May 1999 to an agreement by Indonesia to permit a referendum on the future of East Timor. The referendum was scheduled for August 30, 1999, and run by the United Nations, but, at Jakarta's insistence, Indonesian forces were alone to be responsible for security. Despite months of terror by army-organized militias, more than 98% of Timorese cast ballots and four out of five voted for independence. At this point, the militias -- still under Jakarta's control -- exploded into a paroxysm of violence. UN personnel and international observers were forced to flee. The last foreign journalist in Dili was ... Allan Nairn, until his arrest by Indonesian authorities on September 14. Nairn was threatened with ten years in prison and then expelled (again) from Indonesia six days later.
New Politics editorial board members Joanne Landy and Steve Shalom spoke with Nairn in New York on October 18, 1999, two days before the Indonesian parliament was set to vote on East Timor's independence and on a new president for Indonesia. We talked first about the relationship between Washington and Jakarta and the motives of each. Then we turned to a consideration of differences within the U.S. government between Congress and the Executive branch and the way in which groups like ETAN have been able to bring public pressure to bear on Congress. Next, we discussed the role of the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Finally, we focused on events in East Timor, taking up the issue of international peacekeepers and the position of the East Timorese resistance. [...]