*** Dear friend, With East Timor's struggle for self-determination entering its final phase, the solidarity movement in this country can take heart from having played a key role in forcing the Howard government to break from 24 years of bipartisan wrong policy on East Timor and take steps to help the independence forces. Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) is launching a People's Investigation into successive Australian governments' ``special relationship'' with the Indonesian regime. We support the setting up of an United Nations War Crimes Tribunal to try and punish the Indonesian war criminals, but we believe that the Australian accomplices of the Indonesian regime's illegal occupation and policy of genocide in East Timor should also be called to account. This is a critical time in the Australian government's relationship with Indonesia. After 24 years of bi-partisan foreign policy on East Timor, the Howard government was forced by mass pressure to put a cosy relationship with the Indonesian generals under considerable duress and move to stop the slaughter. The government is now seeking to normalise relations with the new Indonesian government, and we want to urge that a new set of foreign policy principles be adopted. The idea of this investigation, which is designed to include those groups and individuals who are also angry at 24 years of wrong foreign policy, is to come up with findings which could then support a set of demands that we can place on current and future governments to carry out a people-friendly foreign policy on East Timor and Indonesia and the region. The great solidarity movement with the Vietnamese people helped reverse an unjust war and made it more difficult for the governments of the US, Australia and other wealthy countries of the West to send their people to fight in the interest of corporate profit. They called this the ``Vietnam syndrome''. ASIET is calling on you to join with us in attaching a high cost on any government which attempts to re-establish a ``profits before human rights'' relationship with the Indonesian government. Perhaps we should call this our campaign to promote an ``East Timor syndrome''. With this in mind, ASIET will be holding a series of public meetings or ``hearings'' around the country at which we will be collecting testimonies and statements from people who have been witness to the despicable role that Australia has played. We will be seeking to collect testimonies from East Timorese who have been forced to seek asylum in Australia and denied refugee status, aid workers, solidarity activists, outspoken democrats and others who want to ensure that Australian governments never get away with such treachery again. We will also be setting up a special web site, which will be featured in the homepage of the ASIET web site, to highlight these testimonies. People are encouraged to send in their statements and testimonies to be put up on the web site, a selection of which will be compiled into an ASIET booklet to be distributed as widely as possible. In a symbolic act, a copy will also be presented to the federal government. We appeal to you for your support and specifically that you could sponsor this campaign. At the moment that sponsorship would mean putting your name to a list of sponsors on a national poster which is going to printer next week. You can get in touch by e-emailing ASIET, or looking at our web site which has all of ASIET's contact details. Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) PO Box 458 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia Tel: 61 (0)2 9690 1032 Fax: 61 (0)2 9690 1381 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.asiet.org.au/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
