Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Shhh … don’t mention the carnage
INDONESIA: Despite the slaughter of 200,000 people, the United
States seems unwilling to take a stand
On Nov. 12, 1991, in Dili, the capital city of East Timor, 273
people were killed and hundreds more wounded by Indonesian
soldiers. Their crime: attending the memorial procession of another
East Timorese youth killed by Indonesian troops two weeks earlier
and protesting the brutal occupation of East Timor by
Indonesia.
Approximately 200,000 East Timorese have died as a direct result
of Indonesia’s more than 21-year occupation of this small,
half-island nation. This is about one-third of the 1975 population,
when the invasion occurred.
The massive number of deaths has been called "perhaps the
greatest death toll relative to the population since the Holocaust"
by theorist Noam Chomsky.
Oddly enough, there has been very little coverage of this bloody
occupation in the American media. Strange, especially after the
Dili massacre, if you consider the fact that only a couple of years
before, in Tiananmen Square, a similar situation occurred and the
American press was all over it.
It becomes even stranger when the recipients of the 1996 Nobel
Peace Prize were Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo, both East
Timorese citizens who have been working tirelessly for the
self-determination of the East Timorese people. You would think
that a Nobel Peace Prize would elicit a little more of a response
from the press than it did.
But of course the problem is that the United States, along with
many other Western nations, has been very supportive of the current
regime in Indonesia. The press has merely towed the government
line. In fact, the day before the invasion, then-President Gerald
Ford and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, visited
Indonesian President Suharto. This seems very suspicious.
It is a disgrace that most of the Indonesian weapons used during
and after the invasion are of American manufacture. Perhaps it
would not be so bad if after the invasion the United States had
stopped all arms sales; but this never happened. When Clinton took
office he did institute a ban, but only on small-arms sales. This
was a step in the right direction, but hardly sufficient given the
level of atrocities which have been committed by the Indonesian
military.
So why is it that the United States is so willing to let
Indonesia get away with murder? The answer seems to be the
extremely friendly business climate which exists there. The
Indonesian minimum wage is around $2.50 a day, labor laws are
nearly non-existent and independent unions are against the law. In
addition, there is a huge supply of labor which assures that the
cost of labor will remain very low. All of these factors, when
combined with our new and improved global economy, mean that if a
corporation doesn’t want to pay those pesky high-priced American
workers, all it has to do is pack up and move its factory to
Indonesia. The labor is cheap, and the corporation doesn’t have to
worry about strikes, labor disputes or treating its workers well.
There will always be more. (OK, so there’s the occasional riot in a
Nike factory. Those kinds of things are only aberrations. Profits
still soar.)
Needless to say, many American corporations have simply moved to
Indonesia in their constant effort to increase profits at any cost.
Democracy, human rights and basic human decency don’t seem to mean
much when you’re faced with the possibility of making an extra
buck.
So, what is to be done? As a start, this year there will be a
demonstration at noon on Nov. 12 in front of the Indonesian
Consulate in Los Angeles, which is located at 3457 Wilshire
Boulevard. It is in remembrance of all those who have died over the
years in East Timor, as well as a message to Indonesia that we know
what is happening and won’t stand for it. It is also a message to
the U.S. government that we do not want our country to have
anything to do with this brutal dictatorship. This demonstration is
part of an international day of action in solidarity with the
people of East Timor.
Anyone who is interested in the demonstration, wants more
information about any of this or just has something to say can
write to Ruiz at [email protected].
Garrick Ruiz