IT WAS NOT quite business as usual for Manchester bosses invited by the governor of Jakarta to the "beyond the imagination" evening of food and entertainment at the plush Piccadilly hotel Peacock Suite.
•Demonstrators from Stop the Hawk Deal (part of the national Stop The Hawks - No Arms To Indonesia Coalition) made sure that the boozy banquet designed as a sweetener to lure local investors to Jakarta left a sour taste in their mouths.
No doubt the guests were sold an exotic picture of Indonesia as the land of opportunity with abundant natural resources, a rapidly expanding market in one of the fastest growing economies in South East Asia. All lubricated by fine claret of course.
Business appetites may also have been whetted by the less savoury images of a cheap, industrious, docile, obliging, largely female workforce, kept in line by the government controlled S.P.S.I. union - slavering at the mouth they must have been.
Leaflets handed out by demonstrators spelt out the other side of the Indonesian experience: massive human rights violations under the Suharto dictatorship, genocide in the course of the 19 vear occupation of East Timor, and a growing mass opposition facing increasing state repression.
The guests were forewarned that political instability and social unrest would jeopardise investment. But they weren't forewarned about what was to accompany the hors d'oeuvres.
A surprise awaited the diners inside the Peacock Suite. In a welcoming speech a protestor, who had somehow received an invitation, spoke out for several minutes to a stunned audience about the reality of Indonesia.
Only after delivering a blistering exposé was he escorted away by hotel security at the request of the Indonesian officials.
Another protestor was also ejected after talking about East Timor.
Stop The Hawk Deal, in tandem with the Preston Coalition For East Timor, will be stepping up action in the coming months, so overpaid overfed investors beware!
Contact: STHD c/o One World Centre, 6 Mount St, Manchester M2 5NS and PCET c/o Global Education Centre, St Peters Square Preston PR1 7BX.
Friends Meeting House (opposite Euston Station)
Free East Timor!
Speakers include JOSE RAMOS HORTA, External Representative of the National Council Of Maubere Resistance. Most of the detainees are workers, peasants and students.
International opinion is also beginning to shift. East Timor is no longer just a small country, far away, about which people know nothing.
February will see the publication of the report to the 51st session of the UN Special Human Rights Commission by the UN special rapporteur on East Timor, Bacre Waly Ndiaye.
The report will refer to the Santa Cruz killings on NovemSOCIALIST OUTLOOK No.75. 7 January 1995, Page 8 SELF DEFENCE
IS BEAN 10 on for