Why Kissinger?

Referring to the article in New York Herald Tribune, on Feb. 29, 2000 entitled "Kissinger appointed as aide", I can only conclude that Indonesia has fallen into the hands of a "lunatic". I have voiced this warning since 1999.

Kissinger would have been sent to the War Tribunal in The Hague, had it existed in 1975 - for the Christmas bombardments of Hanoi. He and Nixon drew Cambodia and Laos into the Vietnam War. He was the architect of the rise of Marshall Lon Nol, the Soeharto type traitor in Phnom Phen. He was the war criminal that had Salvador Allende killed in Santiago, Chile and put Pinochet in Allende's place etc. etc.

I know Wahid is an illiterate in international politics, but how can it be that nobody can stop his madness -- including Sukarno's daughter -- hiring Kissinger as advisor?

I wrote in an article for The Jakarta Post many months ago that Wahid was a street fighter who betrayed Megawati, but I wasn't aware at the time how serious the situation had become. Bringing Kissinger in at Merdeka Palace is synonymous to bringing the CIA inside, not via the back door like Soeharto did, but via the front door.

It is too late to teach an old dog new tricks, therefore to recommend a mind doctor is a waste of time: Wahid should be removed at Indonesia's earliest convenience, because he is exactly de brokken piloot (the hard-luck pilot) for whom I have tried to alert people for half a year already. God help Indonesia with the bunch of fools now in charge.

WILLEM OLTMANS

Amsterdam