U.S. media and E. Timor<\/p>\n
Jeffrey A. Winters, North Western University, Chicago<\/p>\n
The birth of East Timor as a new nation was described in
\nglowing, even triumphant, tones in the U.S. print media. Timor
\noffers the sort of classic uplift story Americans love to consume
\n-- of fighting against the odds, of epic human struggles.
\nPresident Clinton referred almost Biblically to \"blood and
\nsacrifice\" in the pursuit of freedom.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's military, the TNI, was an easy target for the role
\nof \"bad guy.\" The 1975 invasion and subsequent occupation was
\ndescribed across the U.S. media as \"brutal.\"<\/p>\n
But the American reading public would have to search wide and
\ndig deep to find much accurate reporting of the appalling U.S.
\ngovernment's role in either the long suffering or the eventual
\ntriumph of the Timorese.<\/p>\n
Every article contained the obligatory one-paragraph history
\nof the Indonesian invasion. But not one bothered to mention how
\nthoroughly complicit the U.S. was in allowing the tragic events
\nto occur in the first place.<\/p>\n
A May 20 editorial in the New York Times gave the impression
\nthat the U.S. was a distant observer of the events of 1975,
\nmerely making the \"mistake\" of approving of the invasion. The
\nuncomfortable fact is that President Ford and Secretary of State
\nKissinger met with President Soeharto in Jakarta hours before the
\nattack and made it clear the U.S. was supportive of the plan to
\ninvade. Soeharto had held his generals back until he could get
\nthis crucial U.S. assurance from the very top.<\/p>\n
The fuller piece of the same day in the Times by Jane Perlez
\ndoes not even bother to mention the destructive U.S. role. If
\nanything, the U.S. appears valiant and noble for sending an
\ninternational peace-keeping force to Timor after the Indonesian
\nmilitary oversaw the destruction of everything in sight.<\/p>\n
The disquieting fact is that Bill Clinton, President Bush's
\ndelegate to the independence ceremony, hesitated until the last
\npossible moment to safeguard Timor's referendum -- sending U.S.
\ntroops only for noncombat missions after the Australians led the
\ncall to stop the carnage at the hands of the Indonesians and
\ntheir proxy militia.<\/p>\n
It was obvious on the eve of the referendum that leaving
\nsecurity in the hands of the Indonesian armed forces, whose
\nproven track record of brutality in Timor was not in dispute, was
\na formula for disaster. Western intelligence agencies knew the
\nIndonesians were training militia for intimidation before the
\nvote and for destruction afterward if it went against the
\nIndonesians.<\/p>\n
And still the Clinton administration refused to play hardball
\nwith the generals in Jakarta by insisting that a U.N. force
\nhandle security. Nearly three thousand innocent Timorese perished
\nin 1999 as a result of this cowardice, adding to the \"blood and
\nsacrifice\" Clinton referred to as the price the Timorese paid for
\ntheir freedom.<\/p>\n
Buried in the final paragraph of a May 20th piece in the
\nWashington Post by Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a quote by Clinton at
\nthe ceremony opening the new U.S. embassy in the Timorese capital
\nof Dili. \"I am very honored to be here because we were so
\ninvolved in the struggle of the people of East Timor and so
\nsupportive of this day,\" Clinton remarked.<\/p>\n
This is a distortion of shocking proportions even for Bill
\nClinton. The U.S. was certainly involved in the struggle, but on
\nthe side of the occupying Indonesians for nearly the whole 24
\nyears from the invasion until the violent withdrawal of TNI
\nforces.<\/p>\n
Had the U.S. been \"supportive\" of self-determination when the
\nTimorese really needed it -- before not after the rampages of
\n1999 -- East Timor would not be in the unenviable position of
\ntrying to rebuild their country from the Afghanistan-like rubble
\nleft behind by the departing Indonesians.<\/p>\n
Clinton's statement was apparently too much even for the
\nservile western media. In response to a question, he allowed that
\nU.S. support for the TNI \"made us not as sensitive to the
\nsuffering of the people of East Timor as we should have been. I
\ndon't think we can defend everything we did.\"<\/p>\n
At a time when Americans are deeply confused about why many
\npeople around the world laugh outloud when U.S. officials claim
\nAmerica stands for justice, it would have been useful to have
\nsuch admissions toward the front of the article rather than
\nburied in the last paragraph on the inside page.<\/p>\n
The U.S. rhetoric of supportiveness rings even more hollow
\nwhen one considers that the Bush administration and the UN are
\napplying no serious pressure on Jakarta to bring the TNI top
\nbrass responsible for the mayhem in Timor to justice for crimes
\nagainst humanity.<\/p>\n
Mind you, we're only talking about putting on trial those who
\nkilled the last 3,000 Timorese in 1999, not those responsible for
\nthe deaths of the 200,000 from 1975 forward. No one even mentions
\nthe architects of the murderous invasion -- names like Gen. Benny
\nMurdani or President Soeharto, much less key enablers like Henry
\nKissinger or President Ford.<\/p>\n
Ad hoc tribunals underway in Jakarta are poised to deliver
\nweak sentences, if not outright acquittals, to lower ranking
\nsoldiers and officers for the atrocities of 1999 in Timor. And
\nwhen they do, the UN will not follow through on empty threats of
\ninternational tribunals to go after and hold accountable the real
\nperpetrators.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, hawks in the Bush administration like
\nSecretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul
\nWolfowitz are already touting the kangaroo trials in Jakarta as
\nsolid evidence of TNI reforms. What the administration wants to
\ndo is pour lots of weapons and training into the laps of
\nJakarta's generals to entice them to help \"fight terrorism.\"<\/p>\n
The problem with this plan is that the lion's share of terror
\nin Indonesia occurs at the hands of the military. As for fighting
\nsupposed Al Qaeda cells and violent religious extremists,
\nsympathetic elements of the military, both active and retired
\n(often a hairsplitting distinction in Indonesia), play cynically
\nwith these \"terrorists\" in the pursuit of various domestic
\npolitical agendas.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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