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A special message for you from Noam Chomsky
John
M. Miller December 2013 Dear friend, In 2014, Indonesia will hold crucial elections for parliament and president. These elections will offer Indonesians an opportunity to break with its bloody past. They will also afford ETAN an opportunity to help in that process by highlighting the ongoing impunity that affects so many inside Indonesia and Timor-Leste. With your help, we can take full advantage of this moment. I am writing to urge you to support ETAN as generously as possible. Your support is essential in making this possibility a reality! Human rights are still in crisis in the archipelago. Despite some modest gains in reforming the military and police over the past decade, human rights violations continue daily in West Papua and elsewhere. Past crimes committed in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and elsewhere in the archipelago continue to go unpunished, with those responsible enjoying important positions. Several are prominent candidates for Indonesia's highest office, including Prabowo, who has formed his own political party and is a leading contender for president. General Wiranto, indicted in Timor for his role as head of the military in 1999, is also planning a presidential run. We doubt they'll be very happy if you donate to ETAN.
This past year, many of you joined our work for justice, including an ongoing petition urging unconditional release of West Papuan political prisoners. One such prisoner, Filep Karma, recently expressed his appreciation for ETAN's efforts, declaring "One day I believe I will be free. Visiting ETAN comrades will be my priority." Together we opposed the award from the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). SBY did accept the “World Statesman Award” at a big-ticket fundraising dinner, but ETAN’s “welcoming committee” was right outside, protesting the award and speaking out about SBY’s real record on human rights and religious freedom. Our actions helped to draw attention to Indonesia’s continued human rights violations, including persecution of religious minorities. Letters and other denunciations of the award from academics, activists, and religious leaders generated news in Indonesia for weeks prior to the awards ceremony. A meeting among U.S.-based Indonesian diplomats blamed ETAN, among others, for the uproar surrounding the award. Calls for SBY to make good on the promises he made in his acceptance speech continue to this day.
The global attention to the innovative, award-winning documentary The Act of Killing exposed the appalling reality of the mass killings in Indonesia in 1965-66, when up to a million were massacred and hundreds of thousands more injured, disappeared, raped and imprisoned without trial. ETAN (with Tapol) responded to the victims who urged action for pressure on Indonesia to Say Sorry for '65.
These campaigns and much of ETAN's other work are a direct response to appeals from those affected by the policies we challenge. ETAN works directly with advocacy, human rights and other organizations in Timor-Leste, West Papua, Indonesia and elsewhere, because together we are stronger. Our work is only possible with your support. Please join others in giving generously so that ETAN can continue to support human rights, justice and accountability, democracy, and an equitable and sustainable future for Timor-Leste and Indonesia.
In 2012, ETAN was honored with the Orden de Timor, Timor-Leste's highest award, as a nation's thanks for our work in support of its liberation. We are proud of the part we played in the Timorese struggle for independence and since. The award not only reminds us of what we have accomplished, but how much remains to be done to support the people of Timor-Leste, including their effort to benefit fully from its resources in the Timor Sea in the face of Australia's bullying and spying. Timor's struggle for independence remains incomplete until definitive boundaries are accepted by their neighbors. Noam Chomsky has called ETAN "a voice of reason, criticizing the administration's reluctance to address ongoing human rights violations and escalating oppression in West Papua and against religious minorities throughout Indonesia."
The people of Timor-Leste, West Papua and Indonesia expect a great deal from ETAN. We regularly receive requests for information and pleas for action. Your help is crucial to our ability to respond to all these needs. Your financial contribution to ETAN will make a difference. With your help, ETAN can continue to:
The author of a recent book on Timor-Leste called our information service "the best means for readers to keep up to date with developments in Timor-Leste," adding "This is a tremendous resource, run on [a] shoestring...." We would like to be able to drop the "shoestring" from that description. While we have never been well-funded, we have always made the most of what we have. But we could do so much more with increased support from you. With your help, we can raise the funds we need to carry out and even expand our important work. If you have donated before please give again. If you have not donated in the past, we hope you will contribute generously now to help strengthen ETAN to meet the challenges of the coming years. Thank you!
A luta continua,
John M. Miller P.S. Please consider becoming an ETAN Sustainer by making a monthly donation by credit card. Help put ETAN on a firmer financial footing: information here.
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