Paul,
So let me see if I have this right: it's OK for Indonesia to colonize East
Timor, with great loss of life, as has been going on since 1975, but not OK
for the UN member-states to attempt to stop loss of life resulting from
out-of-control militias who support those Indonesian colonialist practices
by slaughtering and terrorizing people who several weeks ago voted
overwhelmingly to reject all colonization and become an independent nation?
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Becky Kennison
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-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 1999 9:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re-colonising Timor is wrong
Once again, a media campaign in western countries is generating
public support
for military intervention. East Timor is "the next Kosovo". But the
comparison
with Kosovo indicates why an intervention is wrong.
A military intervention would establish a UN protectorate: Kosovo
shows what
that means. At first all decisions would be taken by international
organisations. As in Kosovo, they would exercise absolute military
power. They
would appoint the courts, the police, any local armed forces. The
vast
majority of the population would be excluded from all political
process. A
tiny pro-western, English-speaking, elite would be placed in
positions of
power - first as translators and assistants, later as founders of
the
UN-funded "democratic" political parties. The media would be
controlled
entirely by the UN, which would have censorship powers. In Bosnia
and Kosovo,
political and cultural life has become dependent on western
foundations: in
the Timorese case, the Catholic church would assume that role as
well. Those
who opposed the UN protectorate would have no resources to organise
that
opposition: they will be politically marginalised.
http://www.osce.org/kosovo/
OSCE Kosovo Mission
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/koseth.html
Kosovo intervention ethics
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/osce-pristina.html
OSCE controls media in Kosovo
Timor intervention is not an ethical duty, as some media claim (the
BBC spoke
of a "moral crusade"). There is no moral duty to help those in
danger, beyond
the personal level. I can not go to Timor in person to protect
anyone,
therefore I have no further obligations. I certainly have no moral
obligation
to support the Australian army, or the Portuguese army, or the US
army.
Remember that armies kill people: an intervention in Timor with no
casualties
is impossible. As in Kosovo, there will almost certainly be revenge
attacks -
on the Javanese iimmigrants to Timor. No "obligation to assist"
extends so
far, that I have to give political support to a military
intervention. There
are good reasons to oppose intervention: in reality it is a
*re-colonisation*
of East Timor.
Timor will become a UN protectorate, on a poor Asian island, close
to a rich
country with neoliberal economic policies. It will inevitably become
a victim
of neoliberalism. The prevention of genocide can not justify
neoliberalism.
The best comparison is with Haiti. Thanks to US intervention, the
population
live in abject poverty, with no future except as ultra-cheap labour
for US
firms. Typical of the conditions on Haiti is, that a main supply of
protein is
slaughterhouse waste from the US. Even in Bosnia, the poor were
reduced to
scavenging on the waste dumps of US bases. That is how the US treats
a white
European population - no wonder the Haitians are treated as human
garbage dumps.
That is the future, that the Timorese can expect from an
Australian-Portugese
controlled protectorate. All thanks to a combination of media,
"left-wing"
activists and intellectuals, military lobbies, and promoters of a
neoliberal
Asian-Pacific economy. It would be morally wrong to blackmail
Timor's
inhabitants into accepting that, by giving them the choice of
"genocide or
neoliberalism", the choice "be colonised or be killed". Reducing a
population
to a humiliating dependent status, under conditions of extreme
poverty, can
not be described as "help". Colonisation is not "help". Colonialism
was wrong,
and is wrong - even if the colonial force prevents violence. The
Timor
intervention is unethical. It is morally wrong for any soldier to
take part in
such an intervention: soldiers should refuse orders to participate
in an
intervention force.
------
NATO chief: Timor intervention "needed without any doubt"
BRUSSELS, Sept 8 (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Javier Solana
Wednesday called
for an urgent international intervention to stem escalating violence
in East
Timor, currently under Indonesian martial law.
Asked during a press briefing whether such an intervention was
needed, the
outgoing NATO chief said, "yes, without any doubt.
------
pt
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