Sources of writings

I welcome the interest my articles (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 13, 2000 and Jan. 14, 2000: The U.S.: A party to mass murder) have engendered and, too, the request by Mr. Richard Lewis (the Post, Jan. 22: Give some examples) for me to identify my sources. The information in the article was extracted from the published writings of such people as: Prof. Peter Dale Scott (University of California, Berkeley) Prof. Noam Chomsky (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston), Brian May, Harold Crouch (Cornell University), Benedict R. Anderson and Ruth T. McVey (Cornell University), Allan Nairn and Stephen R. Shalom.

I invite readers to verify the facts for themselves. Having done so, they might like to reflect on how America's international lawlessness can, through the toppling of democratic governments and provision of Western military arms and training to puppet regimes, facilitate operation, brutality and the spread of violence for far too many subsequent decades in countries such as Indonesia.

America would do well to keep its culture of violence and exploitation at home where, fortunately, it is now being challenged by court decisions which have made arms manufacturers liable for some of the mayhem on American streets. Such a principle needs to be applied to international arms sale.

However, for now, international arbitrariness prevails and was recently given quite a boost by Mr. Jesse Helms, Chairman of the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, when he spoke about "the UN aspiring to establish itself as the central authority for a new international order of global laws and global governance"; then, "This is an international order the American people will not countenance".

FRANK RICHARDSON

Jakarta