January-February 2001: 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:
Ongoing 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.-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 from 1975 on.. See below for more information.
Timor for the East Timorese
- Calls by the East Timorese people for greater participation in
decision-making power about their own country’s future must be
heeded by the UN administration, member governments of the UN, and
international NGOs and institutions.
What You Can Do
Call or Write the Incoming Administration with the above
messages
Meet with Members of Congress
Meet with your representatives and senators in-person at their home
offices or call their offices. The new Congress begins January 3. Plan to
educate any newly-elected representative or senator and contact returning
members to reiterate your concerns. (Call your local League of Women
Voters for contact information, or go to www.capweb.net/classic/index.morph
and type in your zip code to find your representative and senators.) See
ETAN’s website for legislation considered by the 106th Congress; some of
these bills will be re-introduced in the new Congress.
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 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 recent promises to disarm militias in West Timor have once
again proven largely hollow. Indonesian security forces in West Timor have
confiscated homemade weapons, but few modern ones.
The killings
of three UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) workers in
September, including an American citizen, most international humanitarian
organizations have abandoned West Timor. Few humanitarian workers have
returned. Supplies of food and medicine are running dangerously low.
Militias have tightened their control over some refugee camps, taking roll
call every night. In areas where militia control has weakened,
repatriation has often increased, demonstrating a direct link between
militia intimidation and repatriation. Returning refugees tell of money
and goods confiscated by Indonesian soldiers.
Immediately following the September 6 militia rampage in Atambua, West
Timor, the UN
Security Council passed Resolution 1319 (UNSCR 1319) calling for
"immediate and effective action" to resolve the crisis in West
Timor. A UN
Security Council delegation visited West Timor in mid-November to
assess compliance with UNSCR 1319 and found continued intimidation and
misinformation by the militias. It called the conditions of the refugees
in the "dilapidated" camps "truly depressing."
No Indonesian military personnel and appallingly few East Timorese
militia leaders have been held accountable for human rights violations
committed in East or West Timor. Though notorious militia leader Eurico
Guterres is finally in custody, Indonesian authorities have refused to
honor a UN request to extradite him to East Timor. Meanwhile, some
Indonesian leaders are hailing Guterres and other militia thugs as
national heroes! In August, Indonesia's upper house of parliament
undermined its own ability to achieve genuine accountability for past human rights abuses by passing
a constitutional amendment prohibiting retroactivity in prosecutions.
Indonesia's new human rights court legislation may allow some prosecutions
but there are many obstacles and justice will likely be delayed if not
denied, underscoring the need for an international human rights tribunal
as called for by the East Timorese leadership to prosecute war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed in East Timor.
Parliamentarians also voted to extend the military's right to 38
parliamentary seats until at least 2009. Indonesia's new human rights
court legislation may allow some prosecutions but there are many
obstacles. Justice will likely be delayed if not denied, underscoring the
need for an international human rights tribunal as called for by the East
Timorese leadership to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed in East Timor. Within East Timor, the Serious Crimes Unit of the
UN administration faces a grave lack of resources, resulting in few
investigations of atrocities committed last year.
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.
A timetable for full independence will be developed shortly with
Independence Day likely to come in late 2001. East Timorese are calling for
greater East Timorese participation in decision-making about their
country's future. They want a more active partnership with the U.N. and
international NGOs and an end to international institutions making choices
for them; more East Timorese administrators with real authority, and the
active participation by all segments of East Timorese society in decisions
about land use, education, health, and development policy. As a member of
the U.N. Security Council -- which has authority over UNTAET, the UN
administration in East Timor -- the U.S. must continue to press for
greater Timorization of UNTAET and for international assistance that meets
East Timorese needs and follows their priorities.
January 2001
East Timor Action Network
PO Box 1182 White Plains, NY 10602
(914) 428-7299;
etan@etan.org
http://www.etan.org
Back to Action Alerts
Note: For those without a fax application on their computer - CallCenter
V3.5.8, is a Native 32-bit Voice Telephony software application integrated with fax and
data communications... and it's free of charge! Download from http://www.v3inc.com/ |
