Newsgroups: alt.activism,misc.headlines,talk.politics.misc,alt.desert-storm Subject: Bush's Double Standards I (Iraq/Kuwait Vs. Indonesia/East-Timor) Reply-To: harelb@cabot (Harel Barzilai) Distribution: world Keywords: Forward from ACTIV-L (see bottom) ------------------------------------------------------------------ From an article in _Lies Of Our Times_, January, 1991, by Alexander George : ------------------------------------------------------------------ _T h e T i m e s_ T a c k l e s T i m o r ================================================ Recent US Administration statements that aggression cannot be allowed to pay must be qualified: aggression _at odds with perceived US interests_ cannot profit. THE FACTS The Indonesian invasion of East Timor provides a case of innocuous aggression. The facts are beyond dispute: In August 1975, fighting erupted between the major Timorese political parties struggling for influence after Portugal's announcement that its colony, East Timor, would be granted independence. After several weeks and 2,000 to 3,000 deaths, the conflict ended with a victory for FRETILIN, which governed the territory until December 7. On that day, mere hours after Kissinger and Ford had departed from Jakarta, Indonesia launched an invasion, at first occupying the main city, Dili, later most of the territory. Within a few years 100,000 to 200,000 died, a sixth to a third of the pre-invasion population, as Jakarta sought to crush the resistance forces of FRETILIN. The Indonesians were militarily supplied, and re-supplied by the US; they were, and continue to be, supported financially; and they were shielded at the United Nations by a US that, since 1976, has voted with Indonesia whenever the issue of East Timor has come under discussion. THE FACTS FIT TO PRINT In the context of this gruesome and shameful history, it is illuminating to ask how the _New York Times_ deals with these events. In 1986, Barbara Crossette published a report, datelined "DILI, Indonesia," that described Timor as "now Indonesia's 27th province" -- thereby legitimizing Indonesia's fraudulent annexation of the territory in 1976, in spite of the fact that, according to the UN, East Timor remains a non-self-governing territory of Portugal. (Imagine the reaction to a report datelined, "Kuwait City, Iraq".) She acknowledged that the Indonesians "were often brutal and repressive," with soldiers bearing "much of the responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people," but nowhere indicated the proportions of the calamity which lift it into the ranks of near-genocide. The invasion, she said, "followed several months of civil war," thereby giving the misleading impression that the territory was in disarray, when in fact it had been stably governed for several months. "Banditry," Crossette added, "and what the Indonesians regard as a sense of vendetta, are often given as reasons for the continuing bloodshed." That there might be a deeper explanation for the continuing resistance seems not to have occurred to our reporter. Of greatest interest, however, is what is _omitted_ in Crossette's 44-paragraph report: the US role as supplier and defender of Indonesian actions. ("War Goes On in Indonesia [_sic_] Isle," _New York Times_, July 19, 1986, p. A1.) These inaccuracies and omissions have remained staples of the _Times_' coverage of East Timor. For example, in a report on the atrocious rights record of Indonesia, misleadingly headlined "Jakarta's Human Rights Record Is Said to Improve," Steven Erlanger manages not ever to mention the genocide in East Timor, again "the former Portuguese colony". He does say that the "Indonesian government emphasizes deliberation, compromise and consensus rather than voting, which is regarded as divisive," apparently untroubled by the fact that this assessment is not even remotely borne out by Indonesian actions in East Timor or at home (many of which are catalogued in the very human rights reports Erlanger summarizes). (_New York Times_, November 21, 1988, p. A13; this passage appeared in the national but not in the late edition.) ENTERING THE CANON Again, many of these biases have entered the canon of official reporting on East Timor. Thus we read in another article that Indonesia "forcibly annexed East Timor in the confusion that followed the withdrawal of Portugal in 1974 as it was rapidly dissolving its colonial empire" (Clyde Haberman, "Melee Erupts as Pope Speaks in East Timor," _New York Times_, October 13, 1989, p. A3) though in fact the territory was invaded in 1975 after several months of calm, and only "annexed" in 1976. At least this article mentions the genocidal killings that followed, though, once again, it omits all reference to the supporting US role then and now. In a recent, long report ("East Timor, Reopened by Indonesians, Remains a Sad and Terrifying Place," October 21, 1990, p. A18) -- again datelined "DILI, Indonesia" -- Erlanger recounts a visit to "the province" and tells of its people's "sufferings [which] have faded from the world's memory." (Speculations about reasons for the amnesia are not offered.) Erlanger does here mention "100,000 to 200,000" dead, but we were told that they "died from 1974 to 1980 in a brutal civil war and the consequent invasion" -- an astonishingly misleading statement in its suggestion that many of the victims perished during a "civil war" that in some way provoked the Indonesian invasion. Later, Erlanger insinuated that an unknown, though perhaps significant, number of these dead should be set at the door of FRETILIN: "No one is sure how many of their opponents were killed by Fretilin before the Indonesian invasion, though some mass graves were found." (No evidence or sources are given.) What is most revealing, however, is that in this, the most substantial report on East Timor the _Times_ has run in years (43 column inches, 46 paragraphs), the role of the US in supporting Indonesia at the time of the atrocities and since, militarily, financially and diplomatically, is not so much as mentioned. Indeed, there is not a single substantive reference to the US in the entire report. The moral: US-condoned aggression and murder can pay. And one can count on our mainstream press to obscure that fact, indeed to obscure the very wink, if not the helping hand, itself. --Alexander George ################################################################## [LOOT's entry in the ACTIV-L resource file "Publications" (available by email):] Lies Of Our Times (c/o Sheridan Square Press) 145 West 4th Street New York, NY 10012 * Subscriptions: $24/year * Monthly, fully indexed, 12 to 16 pages * Published by Institute for Media Analysis, Inc. * Correspondents: Cockburn;Chomsky;Edward Herman;E. Said; L. Cagan;.. "A New magazine from the Institute for Media Analysis. ``Our Times'' are the times we live in; but they are also the words of the _New York Times,_ the most cited news medium in the United States, our paper of record. 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