'SCMP' tells lies

'SCMP' tells lies

The provocative story in the South China Morning Post (SCMP)
published in your paper titled Battling brutality in East Timor
(Sept. 25, 1999) was full of lies. It showed the immoral attitude
of the paper in attempting to disgrace the Indonesian government
and its people. The death of Sander Thoenes was not the
responsibility of the Indonesian government nor the Indonesian
Army but the full responsibility of the multinational
peacekeeping force, especially the Australian contingent under
Commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove.

The SCMP lied when it mentioned that the Indonesian soldiers
opened fire. It was the Australian soldiers who opened fire when
they tried to disperse the proindependence militias and the
Falintil who were ransacking godowns of rice, etc. in Dili. The
Indonesian government with the help of the Indonesian Army were
working hard to help the thousands of refugees who were
sheltering in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT)
especially in Kupang town area.

I would like to say to the SCMP management that Indonesia has
been working endlessly to help the Timorese to become human
beings in the truest sense of the word. Under the wicked
Portuguese colonial rule which lasted for more than 450 years,
the Timorese were no more than coolies and the region was
extremely underdeveloped.

Indonesia saved the East Timorese from the brutality of the
Portuguese and the civil war from 1974 to 1975. We are the nation
who brought freedom and democracy to East Timor. No nation in the
world can deny this.

MUHD, RAMZY HASIBUAN

Jakarta