<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
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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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