Free East Timor

End 21 Years of Genocide

Demonstration in Lafayette Park
November 12, 1997

On December 7, 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to two cut spoken East Timorese, Catholic Bishop Belo and diplomat Jose Ramos-Horta, brought renewed attention to this great in justice. The invasion took the lives of one third of the population of East Timor "due to starvation, epidemics, war and terror," the Nobel committee said.

The military assault on East Timor, its subsequent "annexation" and the ongoing abuses of human rights are made possible by U.S.-supplied weapons and political support. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize is a strong rebuke to this policy.

The genocide and killing continue to this day. Human rights groups, the U.S. State Department, and UN human rights investigators have documented widespread human rights violations—including arbitrary arrest, torture and summary executions—by Indonesia in East Timor. In the most publicized example, over 250 East Timorese were killed while peacefully demonstrating for their independence in November 1991. Indonesian soldiers fired U.S.-made M-16 rifles at the unarmed crowd. In the face of this and countless other atrocities, East Timorese, young and old, continue to risk their lives in the ongoing struggle for their rights.

U.S. companies—like Phillips Petroleum—are now exploring for oil in waters off East Timor. Profits from this oil won't benefit the East Timorese, but will only help line the pockets of the U.S. corporations and the Indonesian generals who have ruled for over 30 years.

Indonesia must withdraw its troops from East Timor and cooperate with a UN-supervised referendum. The East Timorese have the right to decide their own future. Other nations, especially the United States, must make it clear that a vote on self-determination is long overdue. As a start, arms sales to Indonesia must end.

At great risk, East Timorese are resisting Indonesia's illegal occupation. All that they want is to determine their own future. Many Indonesians are demanding democracy for themselves and self-determination for East Timor. They deserve our active support.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) works to support human rights and self-determination for East Timor. Contact us for speakers, videos and other resources, and to join our campaign.

What You Can Do

Get involved. Write letters-to-the-editor Organize a presentation before a group, at your house of worship or in the community. (Contact ETAN)

Send a contribution to support the work of ETAN.

Write President Clinton and Congress. Urge them to: Support a UN-supervised referendum by the East Timorese; stop all arms sales to Indonesia including the proposed sale of F-16 jet fighters; and call on Indonesia to respect human rights; withdraw its troops from East Timor; and free all political prisoners.

Call the White House comment line 202-456-1111, fax: 202-4562883; e-mail president@whitehouse.gov, or write President Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC 20500. Call Senators and Representatives at 202-224-3121. Not sure who your member of Congress is, contact the League of women voters.)

Foreign Affairs

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Living Dangerously

JAKARTA, Indonesia Pound for pound, Indonesia has to be the least understood country in the world. With 200 million people, it is the globe's fourth-largest nation and by far the largest Muslim country—triple the population d Iran. It takes the same time to fly across the 17,000 islands and 300 different ethnic groups that make up Indonesia as It does to fly across the U.S. But ask most Americans about Indonesia and only three things are likely to -come to mind: Bali, East Timor and "The Year of Living Dangerously," starring Mel Gibson.

The U.S. looms somewhat larger in Indonesia The U.S. Congress has been one of the main forces pressing for Improved rights for Indonesian workers, as well as for the much-brutalized people of East Timor. Human rights activists here say the U.S. spotlight has been crucial in keeping Indonesia's leaders focused on addressing abuses, even if progress is sporadic and at a snail's pace.

But in the wake of recent moves by Congress to block the sale of nine F. 16 fighter jets to Indonesia and to freeze the training of Indonesian military officers in America—because of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor—Indonesians are beginning to fear that something new is going on: America is going from criticizing them for certain abuses to turning Indonesia into a pariah state—another Burma, China Iraq or Iran.

If that's where Congress is heading, it would be both wrong and stupid. Indonesia is too complex to be a pariah It has probably the best macroeconomic management of any developing nation, along with mind-boggling corruption; It has political repression along with a tolerance for hundreds d independent nongovernmental human rights groups and a press that is unafraid to write about abuses; it has occasional church burnings, but the most popular Muslim leader ID the country sent his daughter to study in Israel. As one banned newspaper editor here remarked to me: "The Indonesian Government is a police state about six hours a day. The other 18 hours you can negotiate with it, bribe It, Ignore in or go around It." And strategically, Indonesia is the keystone of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), which is the main counterweight to China and Japan in this region. Turning Indonesia into a pariah will produce a national backlash here among the good guys, let alone the bad. Listen to Foreign Minister Ali Alatas

"What we had hoped,.. Mr. Alatas told me, "was that public opinion would not forget Indonesia's constructive role in world affairs. We are not a pariah country that is looking inward or that deserves to be hit on one issue only. Yes, we have an issue, we have East Timor, but that's a complex issue with a long history that we are trying to resolve. We are a huge society in continual growth. It is not an easy country to govern and we have come very far

"We are not causing the world problems because we have dreams of becoming a nuclear power," added Mr. Alatas. "We don't believe in that Economically, we have been at the forefront of the North-South dialogue but with a very rational voice. We are the biggest Islamic population, but we are not an Islamic state. Take all of these factors and I think humbly, we don't deserve to be put into a corner and to say, 'You are a pariah nation and we must clobber you all the time because of East Timor.'

"You can criticize us about human rights; no country is beyond criticism on human rights," continued Mr. Alatas. "We would prefer that you don't criticize us by shouting from the roofs, but that you sit down and as a friend say: 'Look, we don't like the way you do things. You better change because you're getting in trouble.' But why link it to such things as IMET?"

IMET stands for International Military Educational Training. It is a program under which the Pentagon trains selected foreign military officers, in both military matters and human rights. After the 1991 Dili massacre in East Timor, IMET for Indonesian officers was suspended.

"Indonesia is a friend of the U.S., not an enemy," insisted Mr. Ali "It is important not to make it an opponent. Because an Indonesia that is feeling unjustifiably pushed around, an Indonesia that feels that Indonesia bashing is going on, , reaches a point where it says. 'Well, O.K, we've done what we can. If that is not understood then we'll just shrug our shoulders and continue on' "

Indonesia: puzzle not pariah

The Washington Post
Saturday, June 21, 1997

A White House Visit

With 193 million people, Indonesia is the / fourth most populous nation in the world. Its rapid development during the past two decades has moved most Indonesians out of abject poverty, and now many d them want more political freedom. How the regime responds to those aspiration will affect U.S. political and economics interests in vital area of the world.

President Suharto, who has ruled the Indonesian archipelago far an astonishing three decades-plus, staged one of his regular election on, last month The intentions was to show his people, and the world, that at the age of 76 he is firmly in command. The effect was quite the opposite; the on, saw that the president is increasingly out of touch with his prospering, multiethnic nation. The regime's repression of any credible opposition led to violent outbreaks in many parts d to country. on, His refusal to establish a process for orderly succession, to deal with growing corruption among the relatives and on, or to the any space for civil society can only on, anxiety about Indonesia's future.

Nowhere is the cause for concern greater than in East Timor, A distant island that he been resisting Indo…

… seized East Timor with a war that cost the lives of perhaps one-third of the Timorese population, originally only 800,000 or so. Since then a brutal military occupation has only hardened resistance. Much like the Chinese in Tibet, Indonesia has used settlement as a political tactic, promoting the migration of Javanese to East Timor to overwhelm and subjugate the native population. During the election, Timorese frustration at being denied the right to a referendum on their status boiled over, leading to clashes that took at least 37 lives. Since then, Indonesian forces have stepped up their arrests and torture.

President Clinton met in the White Home the other day with Bishop Carlos Belo, who lest East on, the No Nobel Peace Prize for unflinching devotion to the countrymen and their nonviolent struggle. Without advocating any particular political solution the bishop teas said the Timorese people must be a consulted about their island's future. He urged Mr. Clinton to press Indonesia's leaders to respect human rights in East Timor. They have promised to do so before, but—as the UN. Human Rights Commission noted in April--their record is one of "extrajudicial on, disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention." it's a record that serves Indonesia...

In Indonesia, Human rights first, Then

Aid

To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman (column, July 10) worries that Congress is treating Indonesia as a pariah state because of Its occupation of East Timor. But Indonesia is a pariah under international law, violating 10 United Nations resolutions that call upon Jakarta to withdraw from East Timor, where 200,000 people have been killed since Indonesia Invaded the island in 1975.

In the past month, the Indonesian Government has arrested hundreds of civilians and bolstered its troops in East Timor by 6,000, The East Timor Action Network reports that troops have engaged in a crackdown on the resistance and the civilian population .

On June 19, the Far Eastern Economic Review reported that United States Green Berets have been providing specialized training to the Indonesian Special Forces. Indonesia is indeed a "complex" society," but that does not mean the United regime's repression should train the soldiers meting out such repression.

EYAL PRESS
Brooklyn, July 10, 1997

East Timor Action Network
P.O. Box 38626
Philadelphia, PA 19104-8626


INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION


STOP GENOCIDE IN EAST TIMOR!

SUPPORT AN ARMS TRADE CODE OF CONDUCT

COMMEMORATE THE
SANTA CRUZ MASSACRE
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12

Nov. 11, 6pm: Protest Prep on, Nonviolence Training
(with free Pizza @ Amnesty Intel. 1118 22nd St., 3rd floor)

Nov. 12: Dawn to Dusk Drumming, Lafayette Peace Park @ the White House
11 AM Rally @ White House Sidewalk
11:30 March to Indonesian Embassy

(2020 Mass. Ave., NW, West of Dupont Circle)

12 Noon Protest @ the Embassy

Speakers: Estevao Cabral, East Timor & Matthew Jardine

Reenactment of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre honoring the East Timorese who died and disappeared

For more information or to sponsor, call 202/862-9740x3041
www.webcom.com/Peaceact/

Sponsors Amnesty International USA, Asia Pacific Center Baltimore Emergency Response Network, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Fast Timor Action Network, East Timor Religious Outreach, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Free Nigeria Movement, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Global Exchange, Jews Against Genocide, Jonah House, Kairos/Plowshares Community; Magdalene Catholic Worker House, National Benedictines for Peace, NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby Nicaragua Solidarity Network, Nonviolence International, Pax Christi USA, Peace Action, Peace Action Education Fund,SOA Watch, Student Peace Action Network, on, on, Union. of American Hebrew Congregations, Veterans for Peace, Visions inaction,
War Resisters League, Washington Peace Center

DRUM TUROUGH THE SILENCE DRUM THROUGH THE SILENCE

SACRED CIRCLE AT THE WHITE HOUSE TO RAISE CONSCIOUSNESS
ABOUT PRESENT U S. WAR CRIMES ON NOVEMBER 12

DRUM THROUGH THE SCILENCE

Nov. 12

BAN U.S. SUPPORT FOR INDONESIAN INVASION OF EAST TlMOR
CLOSE THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS

WHERE: WHITE HOUSE North (Pennsylvania Ave) side, Washington D.C. meet in Lafayette Park. TIME:NOV 12th, SUNRISE TO SUNSET, Speakers at 11:00 SPONSORS:

East Timor Action Network. ETRO, Peace Action. Amnesty International, USA. Catholic Workers,

Veterans for Peace. War Resisters League, Visions in Action, Global Exchange.

Coordinated with a demonstration at the Indonesian Embassy at noon. Drumming in solidarity with a demonstration at S.O.A. in Fort Benning, GA., Nov. 16.

SPEAKERS:

Estevao Cabral & Mathew Jardine

FACILITATORS:

Randy Crafton, Jaqui MacMillan, Stream Orstrum, Eric Lewis BEGINNERS & NON DRUMMERS WELCOME

For Info, Transpiration & Housing: 215-755-3826

DRUM TUROUGH THE SILENCE DRUM TUROUGH THE SILENCE


EAST TIMOR: WHAT'S THAT?

Most U.S. citizens are unfamiliar with the word East Timor, mostly due to media censorship. Timor is an island north of Australia. East Timor was a peaceful Portuguese colony for over 450 years. In 1975, the Portuguese colonial empire was dissolving and East Timor declared independence. Nine days later (12/7) Indonesia invaded with a full scale military assault. 90% of the weapons were provided by the U.S. taxpayer. Over 200,000 equivalent to 1/3 of the population. has been killed. The U.S. has continued to provide weapons enabling massacres and policies of torture. rape. forced starvation. concentration camps. arbitrary arrest and disappearances. The U.N. has condemned the invasion each year but the U.S. has paralyzed any U.N. action. After 1996 Nobel Peace prize was awarded to two East Timorese, the U.S. finally signed the U.N. resolution. However, U.S. Green Berets still train Kopassus, the Indonesian torture squad. U.S. Marines train Indonesian Marines. There is large scale ecological destruction and the culture of East Timor is being obliterated. The East Timorese want a U.N. supervised referendum on self-determination and for Indonesia to withdrawal in cooperation. Presently, Nelson Mandela is mediating talks between Indonesia and Portugal. The East Timorese have not been included in these talks. Reasons for U.S. complicity: 1) Oil deposits in the Timor Gap, 2) Deep water channel where nuclear submarines can pass, 3) Corporate profits from cheap labor and vast mineral resources in Indonesia

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS: NICE SOUNDING NAME?

In the state of Georgia, (U.S.A.) the School of the Americas trains death squads. torture squads and combat troupe who operate in Latin America Assassinations, murders of nuns, massacres of entire villages, etc. have been performed by graduates of the school. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for this embarrassing attrocity.. Congress has debated closing it down several times. (Remember El Salvador?) * In the last few months S.O.A. watch has added over 100 names to .. regime's repression in A Indonesians in on, in the list of S.O.A. graduates that went on, on to commit on, human rights abuse and to launder dry money at Ft. Benning, GA.

This info has been kept quiet in our "democratic society." The purpose of this drumming is to say: We don't approve of our government exporting torture and violence.

DRUM THROUGH WE SILENCE DRUM THROUGH THE SILENCE

Compliments of Proposition One Committee