Saturday, January 21, 2006
Atrocities in East Timor
The U.S., France and Britain Participated
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It happened under Democratic administration and under Republican. In December 1975 the Indonesians invaded the Island of East Timor, a former Portugese colony. The occupation lasted until 1999. We aided a dictator whose forces tortured and killed East Timorese who resisted. The world did not pay much attention to reports about atrocities being committed against the East Timorese by military and para-military Indonesian forces. U.S. and other major powers were fully aware of what was going on and continued to supply the Indonesians with military hardware and equipment. Now Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has submitted a report to the UN. "The 2,005-page report, which Gusmao delivered to Secretary General Kofi Annan, provided the most detailed account to date of Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation of the island nation, a former Portuguese colony.
Washington Post:
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Talk about Saddam Hussein and the Kurds !
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Washington Post:
- The report, key portions of which were made available to The Washington Post, also charged Indonesia with using napalm against Timorese civilians and using "starvation as a weapon of war," condemning thousands of adults and children to death in camps for displaced Timorese.
- "The commission finds that the government of Indonesia and the Indonesian security forces are primarily responsible and accountable for the death of 100,000 to 180,000 East Timorese civilians who died as a result of the Indonesian military invasion and occupation," said the report by the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, set up by the United Nations and East Timor in 2001.
The panel recommended that countries and companies that provided military support to Indonesia during the 24-year occupation, including the United States, Britain and France, pay reparations to those whose rights were violated. It also urged U.N. members to deny travel visas and freeze the assets of senior Indonesian officials, including former Gen. Wiranto, the armed forces commander in chief in 1999.
- A spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations declined to comment, saying the report had not yet been formally presented.
Talk about Saddam Hussein and the Kurds !
