Green Bay Press-Gazette
Posted January 3, 2006
Letters: People's Forum
Congress must send message on abuses
DENMARK The administration should not have granted unlimited military
"aid" to Indonesia's unreformed military. Bypassing congressional
restrictions will not help democracy or security in Indonesia, a former
dictatorship that killed 70,000 people when it came to power or its
neighbor East Timor, which it occupied for 24 years and killed one-third of
the population.
The strong message sent by Congress that abuses must end, and those
responsible be held accountable, is thrown out the window.
Likewise, lack of accountability and investigations into the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (former School of the
Americas), and the torture-training manuals used, the Pentagon admitted
after years of denial, shows further lack of respect for basic human rights
and with it, democracy.
This year, 19,000 people gathered outside the gates of Fort Benning, Ga.,
where WHINSEC is housed, and 37 of us chose to commit nonviolent civil
disobedience and risk prison to oppose this institution.
Arming dictators and run-amok militaries is no way to promote democracy.
Officials should re-suspend training for Indonesia, and Congress should
support HR 1217, which would suspend WHINSEC and set up an investigation
into its history. Doing otherwise is taken as a green light to carry on
business as usual in the name of those legal fictions of privilege, the
corporation, not human rights and democracy.
Scott Dempsky
--
The Ledger
Lakeland, FL
Published Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Hold East Timor Tribunal
In a bitter irony, the Bush administration recently waived all
restrictions on military assistance to Indonesia just weeks before the 30th
anniversary of that military's invasion of East Timor. Just prior to the
Dec. 7, 1975, invasion, President Ford and his secretary of state, Henry
Kissinger, gave then-dictator Suharto the green light to attack East Timor
with U.S.-supplied weapons. Tens of thousands of civilians died as a direct
result.
No senior military or political official in multiple Indonesian or U.S.
administrations has been held accountable for the crimes against humanity
committed during the invasion or the subsequent quarter century of
occupation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's decision to override
Congress and allow unrestricted U.S. assistance to the brutal Indonesian
military for the first time in more than a decade only sanctions this cycle
of impunity.
Secretary Rice should retract the wavier and, instead, put the
administration's full weight behind an international tribunal on East Timor.
After 30 years, Washington should have learned by now that genuine justice
and human rights protections are in the national interest. Propping up an
unreformed and unaccountable military is not.
GREGORY ESTEVE
Lake Wales
--
The International Herald Tribune
December 5, 2005 Monday
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Weapons for Indonesia
In a bitter irony, the Bush administration recently waived restrictions
on American military assistance to Indonesia just before the 30th
anniversary of the Indonesian military's invasion of East Timor.
As detailed in the article ''Files show complicity on Timor'' (Dec. 2),
just prior to the December 1975 invasion, Henry Kissinger turned a blind eye
to Indonesia's attack on East Timor with weapons supplied by the United
States.
Tens of thousands of civilians died as a direct result; nearly a third of
the population perished in the following two decades.
No senior military or political official in multiple Indonesian or U.S.
administrations has been held accountable for the crimes committed during
the invasion or the subsequent quarter-century of occupation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's decision to undermine Congress and
allow an increase in American assistance to the brutal Indonesian military
only sanctions this cycle of impunity.
Rice should retract the decision and instead put the administration's
full weight behind an international tribunal on East Timor. After 30 years,
Washington should have learned that genuine justice and human rights
protections are in the national interest. Propping up an unreformed and
unaccountable military is not.
Michael Proulx Dusseldorf, Germany
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