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Fall 2000: East Timor
ACTION ALERT
TAKE ACTION FOR EAST TIMOR
BRING THE REFUGEES HOME
SUPPORT JUSTICE FOR EAST TIMOR
What You Can Do
Background
THE COMING MONTHS are an excellent time to raise issues
concerning East Timor and Indonesia with members of Congress (returning
and newly-elected) and other officials. Important issues to raise
include:
Refugee Crisis
- Military-supported militias must be verifiably disarmed and
disbanded.
- Militia leaders should be arrested and extradited to East Timor to
stand trial.
- Indonesia must guarantee international and local humanitarian
workers safe and unimpeded access to refugees.
- An internationally-supervised registration of refugees must be
conducted in an environment free of fear and intimidation to enable
refugees to choose to return to East Timor or settle in
Indonesia.
- The U.S. must maintain heightened pressure on Indonesia to comply
with their promised disarmament campaign.
Suspension of U.S. and International Financial Institution
Assistance
- Disbursement of U.S. and international financial assistance should
be conditioned on Indonesia keeping its promises which can by shown by
Indonesia taking concrete steps to resolve the refugee crisis,
including the conditions above.
Suspension of U.S.-Indonesia Military Ties
- Until the refugee crisis is resolved (through the conditions above
being met), the Indonesian civilian government clearly controls the
Indonesian military, and those responsible for human rights atrocities
committed in East Timor are held accountable for their actions, the current
suspension of all military ties must be maintained. International
Tribunal
- The U.S. should unequivocally support an international tribunal for
East Timor in which military and militia leaders responsible are
prosecuted for their systematic human rights abuses and crimes against
humanity. See below for more information.
What You Can Do
Call the U.S. Administration
Call the State Department and the Department of Defense with the above
messages. Who to call:
- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, 202-647-5291, fax:
202-647-6434, secretary@state.gov
- Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Stanley
Roth, 202-647-9596, fax: 202-647-7350
- Secretary of Defense William Cohen, 703-692-7100, fax: 703-697-9080,
Web form to use to send comments: http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html.
Meet with Members of Congress
With Congress in recess, this is an excellent time to meet with
representatives and senators in-person at home offices. Arrange a meeting
with your newly-elected representative or senator, if your members of
Congress are not returning. Raise the above issues at these meetings.
(Check with your local League of Women Voters for contact information. See
ETAN's website for legislation considered by the 106th Congress.)
Call the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury Department
Request that financial assistance to Indonesia be contingent on
fulfillment of the above-mentioned conditions. Call:
Write, Write, Talk, Talk
Write letters-to-the-editor and op-eds to educate your community via
local media outlets. Arrange interviews with East Timor activists on your
local radio and television station. Contact ETAN outreach coordinator John
M. Miller (john@etan.org,
718-596-7668) for assistance. Consult the ETAN website for sample
letters-to-the-editor.
Organize Local Events
Organize local events to educate the public about East Timor in your
hometown. Arrange video screenings of documentaries on East Timor,
Indonesia, and U.S. foreign policy. Hold local fund-raisers to raise money
for East Timorese organizations and/or the East Timor Action Network.
Network with labor activists about supporting East Timorese efforts to
advocate for worker rights. Start a book drive to help rebuild East
Timor's destroyed libraries. Contact ETAN staff Kristin Sundell (kristin@etan.org,
212-866-5370) or Karen Orenstein (karen@etan.org,
202-544-6911) for more information about such worthy projects in East
Timor.
Thank you! Your efforts make a big difference
BACKGROUND
Indonesia's most recent promise to disarm militias in West Timor has
once again proven hollow. Indonesian security forces have yet to crack
down on militias controlling camps in West Timor, and have now abandoned
any deadlines for enforcing the hand-over of weapons by militias.
Indonesian security forces in West Timor have confiscated homemade
weapons, but few modern ones. Since the killings
of three UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) workers in
September, including an American citizen, international humanitarian
organizations have evacuated from West Timor. Few humanitarian workers
have returned. With virtually no international monitoring presence in the
camps, militias are believed to have tightened their control over the more
than 100,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor, taking roll call every
night in some camps. Supplies of food and medicine are running dangerously
low; and an even greater humanitarian disaster looms.
Immediately following the September 6 militia rampage in Atambua, West
Timor, that left 3 UNHCR workers and at least 11 East and West Timorese
civilians dead, the UN
Security Council passed Resolution 1319 (UNSCR 1319) calling for
"immediate and effective action" to resolve the crisis in West
Timor.
No Indonesian military personnel and appallingly few East Timorese
militia leaders have been held accountable for human rights violations
committed in East and West Timor. Though notorious militia leader Eurico
Guterres has finally been detained in Jakarta, Indonesian authorities have
refused to extradite him to East Timor as requested by the UN in East
Timor. Meanwhile, several Indonesian leaders are hailing Guterres as a
national hero. In August, Indonesia's consultative assembly further
compromised an already questionable ability to achieve genuine
accountability for past human rights abuses by passing
a constitutional amendment prohibiting retroactivity in prosecutions.
Parliamentarians also voted to extend the military's right to 38
parliamentary seats until at least 2009. All of this underscores the need
to create an international human rights tribunal for war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed in East Timor, as called for by the East
Timorese leadership.
I n mid-October, Indonesia's aid donors, including the World Bank, IMF,
and U.S., in the Consultative Group on
Indonesia (CGI) together pledged $5.3 billion in assistance to
Indonesia. Prior to the CGI meeting, the U.S. and World Bank threatened
that aid could be jeopardized if Indonesia failed to curtail the militias.
The U.S. administration has since said that "our pledge is based on
the assumption that Indonesia will fulfill its responsibilities to the
international community, including continued and full compliance with
UNSCR 1319, and that our willingness to proceed with obligations under our
pledge will take into account Indonesia's progress toward these
goals." The U.S. must keep its word and be prepared to withhold
financial assistance if militias retain control of West Timor.
November 2000
East Timor Action Network
PO Box 1182 White Plains, NY 10602
(914) 428-7299;
etan@etan.org
http://www.etan.org
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