Good to have you back Paul!
This is a tricky one. I was very much against the NATO bombing of Kosovo,
but I am in favour of some intervention by the UN (note the difference
here), if (and only if), the situation cannot be resolved by the East
Timorese themselves.
The propblem is that the East Timorese voted in the referendum with the
expectation that the UN would support and uphold the result. They have not
done so with any conviction yet.
A UN protectorate would not be a solution, but a short-term UN mission to
ensure that what the East Timorese people have voted for (by an
overwhelming majority, not just a simple one) takes place surely must be
acceptable.
In Kosovo, the UN had to step in after a divisive and misguided bombing
campaign conducted against their own wishes and the wishes of many people
throughout the world. It's a very different situation.
In reponse to you argument about colonialism - Indonesia itself is a
colonial government imposing its rule on many diverse peoples (not just the
Timorese, but the Acheans, the Ambonese, the Papuans, the various peoples
of Borneo and Sulawesi etc.) all of whom have been fighting back in recent
years, following decades of attempts by the central government in Jakarta
to impose a centrally-decided, largely Javan idea of what it means to be
Indonesian on what is perhaps one of the most culturally and linguistically
diverse areas of the world. This idea has not been one which has
appreciated dversity or respected different cultures. It has been one which
has involved activities as diverse as straigtening the hair of naturally
curly haired peoples to make them appear more 'Indonesian', of
appropriating land and giving in to Javan transmigrants, of effective
martial law throughout the whole state (you try travelling up-river in
parts of Borneo and you'll see what I mean). This whole corrupt regime has
been hand in glove with major Japanese, Korean, Australian and US
corporations. Neo-liberalism and the military state work together here as
in many other places.
There is no simple divide between 'colonial' and 'post-colonial' in
Indonesia. The colonised have become the colonists.
Still I agree that the UN intervention may not solve the situation. But it
has a chance to do so. The key thing is really what happens to government
in Indonesia - will this be a cue for mass revolts against the government
(ther are signs of this today with uprisings in Ache and Ambon), or will
the army return to overt power, or perhaps both?
David.
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David Wood
PhD Research Student ('Intelligence Sites in Rural North Yorkshire')
Centre for Rural Economy
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
0191 222 5305
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