Dave Bedggood wrote:
>
> A statement on the situation in East Timor by
> Communist Workers' Group of NZ. 6 September.
> Printed in Class Struggle # 29 September-October 1999
>
> East Timor - A national revolution betrayed.
>
> Long before the overwhelming vote for Independence on August 30, the
> explosion of violence in East Timor was totally predictable. Ever
> since the leaders of Fretilin were forced to abandon the armed
> struggle for the peaceful process of UN negotiated solution, it was
> clear Indonesia would not give up without a fight. The Golkar regime
> has made no secret of its purpose in bringing in migrants and arming
> paramilitaries. It wants to hang on to East Timor because it is has
> rich resources. Its illegal occupation has been backed by the US,
> Australia and NZ for 24 years. In the face of this reality, to
> believe that it was possible to make a peaceful transition to
> independence is a criminal betrayal of the people of East Timor.
> The only course possible from the start has been for armed struggle
> to defend the Independent state of East Timor declared by Fretilin
> in 1975. In the crisis today, workers around the world must call for
> the right to self-defence of the East Timorese, for a total ban on
> any military and political support for the Indonesian regime, and
> demand the immediate withdrawal of all Indonesian and paramilitary
> forces!
>
> A Victory for the Armed Resistance?
> The overwhelming vote for independence has not set off massive
> celebrations among the 78.5% who survived 25 years of repression to
> vote for separation. Instead it has sparked off a mounting campaign
> of terror by the pro-Jakarta armed thugs. Daily reports show the
> onesided war being waged by the small minority of
> para-militaries against the mass of the population. The thugs are
> being allowed free reign to terrorise and murder pro-independence
> supporters. Their purpose is to act as stooges for the Indonesian
> regime to destabilise the process of secession to keep control
> of the territories with the richest resources in the West
> adjoining West Timor.
>
> This crisis is the result of nearly 25 years of Indonesian occupation
> and resettlement of East Timor. After many years of military
> campaigns to immobilise Fretilin, the downfall of Suhato brought the
> fate of East Timor to a head. Habibie only agreed to a referendum
> under pressure from the US which wants to pose as the champion of
> 'human rights'.. No doubt Habibie expected that the years of brutal
> repression and the policy of resettling migrants in East
> Timor would have created a majority for integration with Indonesia.
> Now that the result is such a resounding victory for Independence,
> Jakarta is attempting to once more hang onto the territory by force.
> It will it take the Jakarta regime until November to ratify the vote.
> Only then will it agree to the UN implementing the transition to
> independence. This gives the pro-Jakarta forces over two months in
> which to occupy the key regions they want to retain and to
> politically cleanse these regions of Independencias. When the UN
> finally gets into gear it will be too late to undo the genocide.
>
> Can the "West" intervene unilaterally? Yes it can. The US
> sidestepped the UN last year over Iraq, and more recently in
> unleashing the NATO bombing of Kosovo. But will it, and ought it to
> intervene? The peacenik left in the West, including Australian and
> NZ, was softened up to the point of giving backhanded support to the
> US in Kosovo. While opposing NATO's bombing in principle, it blamed
> Milosovic's "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo for the intervention. The
> effect was to qualify its opposition to NATO by calling for NATO to
> turn itself into a 'peacekeeping' force in a soverign territory in
> the name of 'human rights'.
>
> The same with East Timor. While preferring a UN solution, most of the
> left are calling for immediate action by the US to defend the 'human
> rights' of the people of East Timor. This is like calling on the
> tiger to guard the calf. The US was the main backer, along with
> Australia and NZ, of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in the first
> place. It is total hypocrisy or naivety at least to suppose that the
> biggest enemy of the declaration of Independence in 1975, can now
> turn around and be the defender of 'human rights'.
>
> When East Timor was abandoned by Portugal in 1975, its militant
> front, Fretilin, declared an independent state. The US, about to lose
> the war in Vietnam, and paranoid about the spread of communism (it
> helped Suharto to massacre of 2 milliion communists in Java in 1965)
> called on Suharto to suppress the Fretilin. Specifically, the US
> wanted to retain acces to the deep sea passage for its submarines to
> the south of Timor. It was this support, plus that of Australia and
> NZ ( the US's South Pacific lackey states) that gave Indonesia the
> backing it needed in the UN to cover up its murderous occupation as
> some sort of 'development'.
>
> Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia defended
> Indonesia's invasion in the hope of gaining access to oil in the
> Timor Gap. Bob Hawke turned a blind eye. So did the former Labor
> hero, Gough Whitlam. Each time they covered up the genocide,
> Indonesia was able to mount further bloody campaigns. New Zealand
> also backed Indonesia, refusing to vote for UN resolutions condemning
> the invasion. David Lange, as Prime Minister in the Fourth Labour
> Government, rather than vote against Indonesia's occupation of East
> Timor, claimed that he could personally persuade Suharto to
> 'sanitise' its rule of East Timor. The abject failure of Lange's
> hyper egoism, along with the illusions of the pacifist left has
> contributed to the situation where Fretilin has been militarily
> isolated and forced to appeal to UN diplomacy to gain independence.
>
> Armed struggle.
> For revolutionaries there was always only one course
> of action against Indonesian occupation- that of armed struggle. As
> the students in Jakarta have shown over the last two years mass,
> direct action comes up against the state forces. The insurgents in
> Aceh have learned the same lesson. But this bloody lesson has been
> part of the education of the East Timorese for nearly 25 years! It
> has cost the lives of more than 200,000 innocent people Now 1000's
> of more lives are to be sacrificed to the altar of peaceful
> negotiation. There can be no better demonstration of the necessity
> of armed struggle than the fight of the East Timorese for their
> independence.
>
> For workers around the world there are a number of
> actions that can be taken to build international solidarity with the
> independence struggle.
>
> First, all workers must defend the right of the masses in East Timor
> to defend themselves against the paramilitary terror. No faith in US
> intervention or UN safe havens! For material aid to the East Timor
> Resistance! For the formation of self-defence committees!
>
> Second, international workers action to blockade Indonesia's armed
> forces must be taken. NZ has military cooperation pacts with Jakarta,
> and contracts to service military aircraft. NZ workers must impose
> bans on any goods and services going to the Indonesian military!
>
> Third, we must call on the workers, students and poor peasants of
> Indonesia to demand that Habibie and Sukarnoputrie remove all
> Indonesian military and paramilitary forces from East Timor. For the
> convocation of a Constituent Assembly! For workers, peasants and
> soldiers councils and militia!
>
> Fourth, we must call on Indonesian workers, students and poor
> peasants to immediately recognise and demand the right to
> self-determination of East Timor and all other independence
> movements that have popular backing. Only by doing so will those
> seccessionist movements be able to choose freely to secede or stay as
> 'autonomous' regions of Indonesia. For a Federation of Socialist
> Repubics of Indonesia!
>
> --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
Well done Communist Workers Group New Zealand, your analysis is spot-on.
Phil Hoeberigs
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