THE TRAGEDY of East Timor has been one of the most awesome of this terrible century. It is also of particular moral significance for us, for the simplest and most obvious of reasons. Western compacity was been direct and decisive.
The expected corollary also holds: unlike the crimes of official enemies, these can be ended by means that have always been readily available, and still are...
Citing diplomatic, church, and militia sources, Australian journalists reported in July "that modern assault rifles, grenades and mortars are being stockpiled, ready for use if ine autonomy within indoncsia option is rejected at the ballot box.
They warned that the army-run militias might be planning a violent takeover of much of the terri. tory ll, despile the terror the popular will would be expressed.
All of this was well understood by the "foreign friends," who also knew how to bring the terror to an end, but precirca to actay hesitate, and keep to evasive and 480OS reactions that the Over 100,000 people recently filled the streets of Lisbon in the largest demonstrations since the Portuguese revolution in 1975.
Although part of the appeals for these demonstrations came from the Portuguese media, government and state institutions, these mobilisations were so huge and spontaneous that there was no possible centralised political direction. The traditional political parties were completely overtaken during the process.
The main demand of the masses was the respect for the results of the referendum held in East Timor and a UN intervention in East Timor as the only immediate way of stopping the massacres. Until September 12, when Jakarta finally accepted the UN intervention, these demonstrations were also accompanied by a very visible anti-American feeling. The contrast in American positions on East Timor and Kosovo was clear to everyone. Indonesian Generals could easily interpret as a "green light" to carry out their grim work.
In a display of extraordinary courasc and acroism, virtually the entire population made their way to the ballot-boxes, many emerging trom hiding to do so...
Immediately, the Indonesian occupying forces reacted as had been predicted by observers on the scene. The weapons that had been stockpiled, and the forces that had been mobilized, conducted a well-planned operation.
They proceeded to drive out anyone who might bring the ter. rible story to the outside world and communications, while massacring, expelling tens of thousands of unknown fate, burning and destroying, murdering priests and nuns, and no one knows how many other hapless victims.
The capital city of Dili has been virtually destroyed. In the countryside, where the army can rampage undetected, one can only guess what has taken place. Even before the latest outrages, highly credible Church sources had reported 3-5000 killed in 1999, well beyond the scale of atrocities in Kosovo prior to the NATO bombings.
The scale might even reach the level of Rwanda if the "foreign friends" keep to timid expres sions of disapproval while insisting that internal security in East Timor "is the responsibility of the Government of Indonesia, and we don't want to take that responsibility away from them"
the official position of the State Department a few days before the August 30 referendum.
It would have been far less hypocritical to have said, early this year, that internal security in Kosovo "is the responsibility of Government of Yugoslavia, and we don't want to take that responsibility away from them."
Indonesia's East Timor have been vastly greater, even just this year, not to speak of their actions during the years of aggression and terror; Westernbacked, we should never allow ourselves to forget. That aside, Indonesia has no claim whatsoever to the territory it invaded and occupied, apart from the claim based on support by the Great Powers. The "foreign friends" also the Indonesian position. In efforts that took new forms of understand that direct intervencios in occupied territory, however justified, might not even be necessary. If the United States were to take a clear, unambiguous, and public stand, informing the Indonesian Generals that this game is over, that might very well suffice. The same has been true for the past quarter-century, as the US provided critical military and diplomatic support for the invasion and atrocities.
These were directed by General Suharto, compiling yet another chapter in his always with Western support, and совс 15019 often acclaim. He was once again praised by the Clinton Adminis. tration.
He is "our kind of guy," the Administration declared as he visited Washington shortly before he fell from grace by losing control and dragging his feet on IMF orders. If changing the former green light to a new red light does suffice, Washington and its allies have ample means at their dis. massacres are still freely walking through the corridors of internaposal: termination of arms sales to lae killers, minauon or wan crimes trials against the leadership - not an insignificant threat; cutting the economic support funds that are, incidentally, not their ambiguities; putting a hold on Western energy corporations and multinationals, along with other investment and commercial activities. There is also no reason to shy away from peacekeeping forces to replace the occupying terrorist army, if that proves necessary. Indonesia has no authority to "invite" foreign intervention, as President Clinton urged, any more than Saddam Hussein had authority to invite foreign intervention in Kuwait, or Nazi Germany in France in 1944 for that matter. If dispatch of peacekeep. ing forces is disguised by such prettified terminology, it is of no arcat importance, as long as we do not succumb to illusions that from understanding what has happened, and what it portends.