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INT-BOUNDARIES  1999

INT-BOUNDARIES 1999

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Subject:

Re: Re-colonising Timor is wrong

From:

[log in to unmask]

Reply-To:

[log in to unmask]

Date:

Mon, 20 Sep 1999 10:47:52 -0400

Content-Type:

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     Well, usually I do not respond to the messages that go beyond the 
     mandate of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, 
     Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations.  However, as a United Nations 
     staff member from a country which has never "colonized" any territory, 
     I simply cannot be silent when the international boundaries forum is 
     used for propagating personal opinions based on total misunderstanding 
     of the current state of international law and the role of the United 
     Nations.  The misleading logic of the writers message is obvious - 
     starting from false premises, he twists the reality, mixes the result 
     with his lack of faith in the value of human life and, after putting 
     on a few qualifying labels, he comes to the wrong conclusions.  I do 
     not think that the international boundaries forum is a place to enter 
     into any specific arguments over this message, if the writer is 
     willing to further discuss his opinions, he is most than welcome to do 
     it directly through my mailbox.
     
     This being said and for the sake of about 100 of our colleagues, 
     United Nations staff members, who risked their life to protect a large 
     group of civilian population, I would invite both the writer and 
     interested international boundaries readers to visit the UNAMET site: 
     
     http://www.un.org/peace/etimor/etimor.htm
     
     and to read the Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
     on the human rights situation in East Timor and other documents. 
     
     In concluding, I would like to remind Mr. Treanor of the purposes of the 
     United Nations for which we, staff of the Organization, work:
     
     "To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take 
     effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to 
     the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches 
     of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with 
     the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement 
     of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the 
     peace; 
     
     "To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the 
     principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take 
     other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; 
     
     "To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of 
     an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting 
     and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for 
     all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and 
     
     "To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of 
     these common ends. "
     
     
     
     He may need to accept that other people could be guided by those noble 
     goals.
     
     
     
     
=====================================================================

                         Vladimir Jares
Law of the Sea Officer                  Specialiste du droit de la mer
Division for Ocean Affairs and          Division des affaires maritimes
  the Law of the Sea                      et du droit de la mer
Office of Legal Affairs                 Bureau des affaires juridiques
DC2-0440                                DC2-0440
United Nations                          Nations Unies  
New York, NY 10017                      New York, NY 10017

                         phone: (212) 963 3945
                         fax:   (212) 963 5847
                         email: [log in to unmask]
=====================================================================

______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re-colonising Timor is wrong 
Author:  <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date:    20/09/1999 3:45 PM


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://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.
     
--------
Paul Treanor
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/nuke-jakarta.html
     



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