<nettime> EAST TIMOR DIGEST [massacres planned, Western Democracy]

[nettimes_digestive_system <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>]

[moderator's note: yes terry its true. a week before the independance
vote, the sydney morning herald had even reported the "scorched earth" 
policy that the indonesian military would embark upon after the vote. 
Also that fleet consists of one guided missile frigate, one ANZAC-class
frigate, HMS Glasgow (an "augmented destroyer"), the NZ ship (another
ANZAC-class), the Heavy Landing Ship HMAS Tobruk, and three or four Heavy
Landing Craft. Still in Darwin Harbour (as of Sunday night) are the Aegis
cruiser USS Mobile Bay and the 'fast catamaran' troopship HMAS Jervis Bay.
Deploying first up with the 1st or 3rd Brigades (I think), will be the 300
British Gurkas, a Portuguese Field Hospital, some New Zealand units and
others. There have been newspaper reports that the Australian SAS have
been operating in their usual 4 or 5 man squads on recon missions on the
ground in E.Timor "for some weeks", a fairly standard operating procedure,
I guess. It would be interesting to see Indonesian reaction to this
non-UN-authorised activity -- although perhaps, like spying, everyone does
it and yet no one will acknowledge it.]

------------------------------------------------------------

From: terry allen <tallen@igc.org>

Initial wave of UN force embarks for East Timor
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff, 09/19/99

DARWIN, Australia - The leading wave of a multinational force steamed
toward East Timor aboard nine military vessels late yesterday, seeking to
restore peace to the devastated territory. 

At the same time, troops and civilians loyal to Indonesia reportedly were
crowding onto ships in East Timor, evacuating the land they have dominated
for a quarter-century. 

An Australian guided-missile frigate, a British destroyer, a New Zealand
frigate, and four Australian supply-and-landing craft set sail for Timor
island, nearly 400 miles to the north and a day's journey by sea, at the
southeastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. 

Hours earlier, the first 13 US Marines landed here on a C-130 transport
plane carrying trucks and supplies from their base in Okinawa, Japan. 
They will set up a logistics and command post for the 200 US troops that
will join the East Timor peacekeeping force, and US officials here said
more Marines are expected to arrive today. 

Thousands of infantry and support troops are expected to stream into the
ravaged territory starting tomorrow, accompanied by armored personnel
carriers, light tanks, and attack helicopters. As many as 8,000 military
personnel from more than a dozen countries will join the UN mission. 

The force was amassed in response to a brutal campaign of revenge
unleashed by pro-Indonesia forces following a landslide vote for
independence in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that was invaded by
neighboring Indonesia in 1975 and occupied ever since. Witnesses say
Indonesian troops and police have armed and aided gangs that massacred
thousands of independence supporters, forced tens of thousands at gunpoint
to the Indonesian territory of West Timor, and torched countless villages
since Sept. 4, when the United Nations announced that 79 percent of East
Timorese had voted for independence. 

--------------------------------------------------------------

MASSACRES PLANNED?

Long before votes were cast, however, the head of military intelligence of
Indonesia's feared special forces, hatched a plot to kill independence
leaders and Catholic clergy who were perceived to support separatism,
according to the former chief of a pro-Jakarta militia who has fled to the
Portuguese colony of Macau. 

Tomas Goncalves told the South China Morning Post that Lieutenant Colonel
Yahyat Sudrajad had demanded the elimination of independence leaders,
their children, and even their grandchildren at a Feb. 16 meeting with
leaders of militias from the 12 regions of East Timor, including himself.
''The agenda for the meeting including funding and arming militias,'' he
said. 

Goncalves said that on March 26, he attended another meeting at which East
Timor's Jakarta-appointed governor, Abilio Soares, ordered the killings of
priests and nuns. Goncalves said that was the last straw for him. 

 ''I told them I have no problem fighting [pro-independence] guerrillas,
but as a Catholic, I could not kill priests and nuns and attack the
Church,'' he said. 

Meanwhile, UN officials said yesterday that Indonesia is moving refugees
from West Timor to other islands, possibly against their will. 
Indonesia's transmigration minister said he would resettle to other
islands one-third of the 150,000 East Timorese refugees now in West Timor. 

 ''Our concern is that all of these people forcibly displaced to West
Timor ... are being forcibly moved to other parts of Indonesia,'' said
David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor,
which has relocated here until its personnel can follow troops back into
the territory. ''The Indonesian government ... line is, `We're resettling
these poor refugees.'''

UN officials and aid workers say militias control the refugee camps in
West Timor, and witnesses say gunmen have pulled young men and boys out of
the camps and executed them. As many as 300,000 people have fled to the
hills in East Timor, and many are believed in imminent danger of
starvation. 

Yesterday, the UN dropped 6 tons of high-protein rations over the East
Timor district of Bobonaro and an estimated 10 tons over Ermera, where
tens of thousands of people are sheltering in the hills. It was the second
day of food drops approved by Indonesia, and more are expected today. 

 Also today, the commander of the UN-approved force, Major General Peter
Cosgrove of Australia, is scheduled to fly to East Timor's capital of Dili
to meet senior Indonesian military officers to ensure that the
multinational force can deploy ''with the maximum of cooperation and the
minimum of confusion,'' said Stephen Ridgeway, an Australian military
spokesman. Up to 8,000 personnel from a dozen countries are to join the
mission. 

The Indonesian president, B.J. Habibie, buckled to overseas pressure Sept.
12 and invited foreign troops to restore order, but said a multinational
force would have to serve alongside Indonesian troops - a bitter pill for
many who saw Indonesian soldiers participating in the destruction. 

In a startling reversal, Indonesian Major General Kiki Syahnakri,
commander in East Timor, said he would withdraw his soldiers over the
coming week, keeping in place only two brigades of more than 3,600 men,
and would hand over command once the international force deploys. 

East Timorese refugees and international observers are skeptical of the
military's promise. Indonesia signed a UN agreement last May to provide
security before and after the vote. 

Indonesian soldiers have in the past two days helped sweep up debris and
hand out aid, witnesses say, but some are still feared to be plotting
reprisals against incoming foreign troops. Members of militias and their
sympathizers in other parts of Indonesia have threatened the UN-authorized
troops. 

''We'll go back and fight the UN soldiers if we have to, if they harass
us. We have our responsibility to look after our people,'' militiaman
Henrique Lopes told a television interviewer from Alor, an island off East
Timor. 

On Indonesia's main island of Java, tens of thousands of Muslims allegedly
have signed up for a holy war against UN-backed forces, leaders of
Nadhlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest religious group, said yesterday. 

''The call for jihad against foreign intervention in East Timor should be
understood as a spontaneous heroism,'' Hasyim Muzadi, the head of group in
East Java, told Reuters. ''The anger of Indonesian people is not only
directed at Australia, but also especially at the United States.''

Muzadi called Washington hypocritical for supporting Jakarta's invasion of
East Timor in 1975 - at a time when Cold War attitudes stoked fears of a
leftist, independent Timor - and now supporting Timorese independence. 

The White House on Friday warned militias not to attack peacekeepers,
saying the Australian-led forces would ''take all necessary means'' to
defend themselves. Unlike UN peacekeepers in Bosnia, who suffered
casualties and could not fight back, the East Timor force has a mandate to
use deadly force. 

Australia's prime minister, John Howard, is expected to address his nation
today to explain the government's commitment to the force. He and his top
military commanders have braced Australians to expect casualties. 

Terry J. Allen
44 Old Brook Rd.
Richmond, VT 05477 USA
802-434-3767 voice
802-434-3446 fax
tallen@igc.org


------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 23:56:09 -0400
Subject: What makes the Western Democracy possible? East Timor.

The capitalist democracies of the West are largely kept afloat by the
ruthlessness of mercurial dictaorships that offer cheap, docile labor and
no environmental restrictions like Zaire, Indonesia and many other Asian,
African and South American regimes. The West despise those regimes
publicly but loves to do business with them. Now, the Zaire is gone and
Indonesia is soon to follow. It is time multi-national corporations find
out the other way how to make profit. 

Allan Nairn, the US journalist (Pacifica) is detained in Indonesia.  First
foreign journalist to get arrested there. He wrote critically about
connections between U.S. corporations and Suharto regime. So, maybe
Indonesian government thinks that the U.S. won't lift a finger for him. We
shall see. The response to this case will determine whether western
capitalist democracies deserve to survive. 

http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/feature/humanrts/cases/i-nairngalhos.html

http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/corner/worldnews/other/other155.html

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