Dear friend,

I was recently honored by the government of Timor-Leste for my long support of their independence. At the awards ceremony, I called the East Timorese victory over Indonesia and its U.S. backers “the miracle of the 20th century.”

Noam Chomsky with (from left) Jill Sternberg, John M. Miller, Charles Scheiner and Valeria Wasserman Chomsky.

Timor's victory against overwhelming odds was the result of hard work by many inside the country and around the world. Among the most tenacious and effective groups was the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network.

I have supported ETAN from the very beginning. I am told that I gave the organization its first donation, an investment that has paid off in real changes to U.S. policy. But ETAN’s work did not end with Timor-Leste’s independence, and my investment in it continues to pay off in ETAN’s continuing organizing and advocacy in support of the peoples of Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and West Papua.

 

I write you today to urge you to join me in supporting ETAN's ongoing work.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the 1965 coup that put General Suharto in power. Ten years later, the U.S.-backed dictator launched a brutal invasion and occupation of East Timor. Those two events resulted in the murder of more than one million people, as Suharto's troops — armed and trained by the United States — carried out one massacre after another.

The war crimes in Timor-Leste were enabled by more than two decades of support by the United States and its allies. ETAN continues to demand justice for the many victims and survivors of the occupation and massacres. It demands that the Indonesian generals who perpetrated them to be held accountable. But ETAN also demands that the United States take responsibility for its role in aiding and abetting those crimes and that key U.S. figures — like Henry Kissinger — be brought to justice for their roles in helping to perpetrate genocide and crimes against humanity.

 

Yet human rights violations continued after the fall of the dictator Suharto. They are going on today in West Papua. As long as the United States and other Western powers support atrocities, they are carried out with impunity, and ETAN is as committed to advocating for the rights of West Papuans as it was to those of the East Timorese.

ETAN cannot carry out this work without your support. Please give generously so ETAN's valuable work can continue.

Filep Karma soon after his release.

Thanks to ETAN's and others' efforts, Filep Karma, West Papua's most prominent political prisoner, is enjoying his first few days of freedom. He served 11 years of a 15-year sentence for organizing a demonstration at which protesters raised the "morning star" flag, a banned-symbol of West Papuans' aspirations for self-determination. ETAN continues to advocate for unconditional freedom for Indonesia's remaining political prisoners and for an end to repression in West Papua.

And ETAN continues to campaign for the United States to declassify and release all its files about the 1960’s massacres in Indonesia, which the CIA itself concluded were "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century," and for the United States to acknowledge its crucial role in those crimes. ETAN is supporting a Senate resolution inspired by Joshua Oppenheimer's powerful documentaries on those massacres. (If you haven't yet done so, please sign ETAN's petition demanding the release all of its records and an acknowledgment of the U.S. role in these crimes.)

ETAN remains a go-to source of information on events past and present in the region. ETAN's e-mail lists, website, and twitter feed are widely praised as sources of information and analysis. More than 4000 activists, journalists, policy makers, and students keep informed through ETAN's long-running east-timor email listserv about Timor-Leste. Many of you rely on this and ETAN's similar services on Indonesia and West Papua.

You can see that ETAN's work remains vital. But that work can only continue with ongoing and substantial support by people who, like you, believe in human rights, justice and accountability for the peoples of Timor-Leste, West Papua, and Indonesia.

Your support is crucial. Thank you for joining me and giving generously.

Sincerely,

 /s/

Noam Chomsky

P.S. Please consider becoming an ETAN Sustainer by making a monthly donation by credit card. Help put ETAN on a firmer financial footing, see information here.