JOHN M. MILLER
East
Timor and Indonesia Action
Network
PO Box 1663, New
York, NY 10035-1663 USA
December 2017
Dear friend of
ETAN,
I’m writing to ask
you to support our work at the East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network for the
coming year. As you may know, ETAN has worked since 1991 to advance
self-determination, democracy, and human rights for the peoples of
Timor-Leste (East Timor), Indonesia and West Papua.
Although Timor-Leste has been free of
Indonesian military occupation since 1999, its people still struggle
to achieve economic, social, and political justice within their
sovereign nation and to overcome pressure from outside, especially
from their large neighbors Indonesia and Australia.
"ETAN’s work remains
essential, but it can only do its work with the active
and generous support of people like you, who believe in
human rights and in the right to self-determination,
justice and accountability, and in social and economic
justice for the people of East Timor and Indonesia."
- Noam Chomsky
|
Every day, ETAN compiles and distributes
information about developments in Timor to a growing list of more
than 5,700 people across the globe. We continue to work in
solidarity with Timor-Leste civil society groups, and to help people
in the United States and elsewhere strengthen their awareness and
activism.
Will you be one of 120 donors we need to contribute a total of $12,000
to help ETAN begin 2018 on a strong financial footing? Will you join
others in investing in ETAN's pursuit of justice and in the defense
of democracy and human rights?
Say yes
-- please donate today!
People in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, West Papua,
and elsewhere tell us that ETAN's work remains as important as ever.
Recently, ETAN's board began a long-term planning process. We are
discussing how to make our strategies and tactics more effective and
appropriate. We have received valuable suggestions from many
people and welcome your input and words of support. With your help,
we can intensify our pursuit of justice for the victims of crimes
committed by Indonesia's police and military: from the bloody coup
in 1965 that initiated decades of Suharto dictatorship, through the
illegal invasion and occupation of Timor-Leste, to the ongoing human
rights violations against West Papuans, LGBTQ Indonesians and
Timorese, and too
many others. With your
help, ETAN will pressure the U.S. government and the international
community to
ETAN's
actions and campaigns have always been based on the
interests of the people, developed after consulting our
civil society. Although ETAN’s annual budget is smaller
than virtually every other international organization
involved with our country, the work that they do is
invaluable."
- José Ramos-Horta
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President, Democratic
Republic of Timor-Leste
|
acknowledge their role in arming and training the
perpetrators of many of these crimes.
Your help is crucial to ETAN's support for the
rights of the people of West Papua, including their struggle for
self-determination. We will focus on public education in the U.S.
and support West Papuan lobbying at the United Nations.
With your support, ETAN continues to inform,
educate, advocate. and organize in support of the Timorese people’s
rights – to democratic governance, permanent maritime boundaries,
adequate nutrition, effective education and decent health care. We
amplify their concerns and voices for a worldwide audience, while
respecting their national sovereignty. Last month, to celebrate the
42nd anniversary of Timor-Leste’s declaration of
independence (which coincided with Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.),
we
wrote:
“ETAN gives thanks for the sovereignty,
democracy, and peace that currently prevails in Timor-Leste, but we
do not forget the shameful colonization and occupation which foreign
invaders, some supported by the United States government, inflicted
on your people. We recommit ourselves to improve democratic
practices in the United States and to work for policies that secure
human rights, end impunity, and achieve social and economic justice
for both our peoples. Timor-Leste has made more progress in 42 years
than the United States has in 241, but both nations have a long way
to go, and ETAN looks forward to the continuing journey.”
We that hope you will join us
on that journey.
A luta
continua,
John M. Miller
National Coordinator, ETAN
New York, NY