<This Chomsky piece is published in full by Le Monde Diplomatique. The
French version is already available on-line. The complete English
(retranslated ??) version will show-up in the next couple of days.

MichaelP
========================

                         We Americans are to blame
                                Noam Chomsky
THE GUARDIAN (London)                          Tuesday October 12, 1999

    It is not easy to write with feigned calm and dispassion about the
    events that have been unfolding in East Timor. Horror and shame are
    compounded by the fact that the crimes are so familiar and could so
     easily have been halted by the international community a long time
                                    ago.

      Indonesia invaded the territory in December 1975, relying on US
        diplomatic support and arms, used illegally but with secret
   authorisation from Washington; new arms shipments were sent under the
                      cover of an official "embargo".

   There was no need to threaten bombing or even sanctions. It would have
    sufficed for the US and its allies to withdraw active participation
    and inform their associates in the Indonesian military command that
   the atrocities must be terminated and the territory granted the right
       of self-determination, as upheld by the United Nations and the
   international court of justice. We cannot undo the past, but should at
    least be willing to recognise what we have done, and face the moral
    responsibility of saving the remnants and providing reparations - a
             small gesture of compensation for terrible crimes.

    Even before president Habibie's surprise call for a referendum this
   year, the army anticipated threats to its rule, including its control
   over East Timor's resources, and undertook careful planning with "the
                 aim, quite simply... to destroy a nation".

      The plans were known to western intelligence. The army recruited
      thousands of West Timorese and brought in forces from Java. More
    ominously, the military command sent units of its dreaded US-trained
      Kopassus special forces and, as senior military adviser, General
    Makarim, a US-trained intelligence specialist with "a reputation for
                             callous violence".

      Terror and destruction began early in the year. The army forces
   responsible have been described as "rogue elements" in the west. There
   is good reason, however, to accept Bishop Belo's assignment of direct
    responsibility to General Wiranto. It appears that the militias have
     been managed by elite units of Kopassus, the "crack special forces
   unit" that had, according to veteran Asia correspondent David Jenkins,
     "been training regularly with US and Australian forces until their
      behaviour became too much of an embarrassment for their foreign
                                 friends".

    These forces adopted the tactics of the US Phoenix programme in the
    Vietnam war, which killed tens of thousands of peasants and much of
   the indigenous South Vietnamese leadership, Jenkins writes, as well as
       "the tactics employed by the Contras" in Nicaragua. The state
          terrorists were "not simply going after the most radical
     pro-independence people, but... the moderates, the people who have
                       influence in their community."

    Well before the referendum, the commander of the Indonesian military
    in Dili, Colonel Tono Suratman, warned of what was to come: "If the
     pro-independents do win... all will be destroyed. It will be worse
   than 23 years ago". An army document of early May, when international
   agreement on the referendum was reached, ordered "massacres should be
     carried out from village to village after the announcement of the
      ballot if the pro-independence supporters win". The independence
   movement "should be eliminated from its leadership down to its roots".

    Citing diplomatic, church and militia sources, the Australian press
   reported that "hundreds of modern assault rifles, grenades and mortars
   are being stockpiled, ready for use if the autonomy option is rejected
                            at the ballot box".

   All of this was understood by Indonesia's "foreign friends", who also
     knew how to bring the terror to an end, but preferred evasive and
       ambiguous reactions that the Indonesian generals could easily
           interpret as a "green light" to carry out their work.

        The sordid history must be viewed against the background of
    US-Indonesia relations in the postwar era. The rich resources of the
     archipelago, and its critical strategic location, guaranteed it a
      central role in US global planning. These factors lie behind US
       efforts 40 years ago to dismantle Indonesia, perceived as too
   independent and too democratic - even permitting participation of the
      poor peasants. These factors account for western support for the
      regime of killers and torturers who emerged from the 1965 coup.

   Their achievements were seen as a vindication of Washington's wars in
     Indochina, motivated in large part by concerns that the "virus" of
          independent nationalism might "infect" Indonesia, to use
                          Kissinger-like rhetoric.

    Surely we should by now be willing to cast aside mythology and face
      the causes and consequences of our actions, and not only in East
                                   Timor.

   [ A full version of Professor Chomsky's article appears in the
   October edition of Le Monde diplomatique. To subscribe to the English
    language edition and the Guardian Weekly, contact 0161-832 7200 ext
                                    8712 ]



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