> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 19:17:13 -0700 > Reply-To: ETAN-ALL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Best place to spot dictators > > From this week's Georgia Straight annual "Best of Vancouver" survey: > > BEST PLACE TO SPOT DICTATORS > University of British Columbia > > When the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit comes to UBC this > summer, Vancovuer will be rolling out the red carpet for some of the > world's worst human-rights violaters, including Chinese president Jiang > Zemin and Fidel Ramos, president of the Philippines. > > Foremost among them is Indonesian dictator Suharto. A former general in the > Indonesian army, Suharto seized power in a 1965 coup that cost up to a > million lives, according to Amnesty International. He is most notororious > for ordering Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975. Since then, an > estimated 200,000 people -- one Timroese out of every three -- have been > killed. Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguistics > prof and U.S. foreign-policy gadfly, has called the situation in East Timor > "the most obscene abandonment of world moral order since the Holocaust." > The United Nations has passed ten resolutions calling for Indonesia to > withdraw from East Timor, but Suhrrto has refused. > > Suharto's treatement of his own people is not much better. Democracy is > effectively banned in Indonesia, as are trade unions. Because workers > cannot organize, wages are frozen at a subsistence level, averaging the > equivalent of C$2 a day. Meanwhile, Canadian investment in Indonesia has > tripled in the past four years, and in 1994 the federal government resumed > the sale of military equipment to the Suharto regime. > > UBC president David Starangway has been m,uch criticized for closing the > deal to bring APEC to UBC. There is little doubt that the university's > image -- at least in the yes of those concerned about human rights -- has > been tarnished. > > All wordly things are brief, like lightning in the sky; > This life you must know as the tiny splash of a raindrop; > A thing of beauty that disappears even as it comes into being. > Therefore set your goal, > Make use of every day and night to achieve it. > -- Tsong Khapa > >
