Cohen's trip to Indonesia
'Human rights' or a mission for Wall Street
By Deirdre
Griswold
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen flew to Indonesia
Sept. 17 to warn the government of President Adburrahman Wahid
that it risked "isolation" if it didn't cooperate with
Washington on the issue of East Timor. Two days earlier, four
U.S. Navy ships, including the USS Bunker Hill and the USS
Tarawa, arrived off East Timor carrying aid for the beleaguered
population.
At least, that's the official line. That's what is being
told on prime time TV and in the mass circulation
newspapers.
However, there's another, very different side to this story.
In addition to some material aid, those military ships were
carrying 2,000 marines and 2,000 sailors. And while Cohen might
be talking tough to the press about human rights and democracy,
he's talking tough to the Indonesian government about something
else.
The ostensible reason for Cohen's trip is the climate of
terror in East Timor created by paramilitaries orchestrated by
the Indonesian generals, who are trying to hold onto influence
in this small territory despite a referendum last year in which
the people opted for independence. Not only do these fascist
thugs continue to murder, beat and starve the population at the
behest of the Indonesian military, but they have attacked some
United Nations personnel stationed in the area, killing four of
them in recent weeks.
This provides a very convenient cover for Cohen to come and
lay down the law to the government in Jakarta--a reform
government that replaced General Suharto and his cronies a year
ago after mass protests but is reminded every day that the
military still control the guns.
Cohen and the rest of the Clinton administration are
involved in a monumental charade, pretending to care so much
about the people of the small territory of East Timor that they
are willing to alienate Indonesia, the fourth most populous
country in the world with over 200 million people.
Behind the pious talk,
crass interests
The real reason for Cohen's trip, however, is to bear down
heavy on this new government on behalf of U.S. corporate
interests.
Wall Street Journal analyst Jay Solomon must know that the
transnational CEOs and the big investors don't care any more
about the people of East Timor than they do about the poor and
oppressed here. So in a Sept. 18 article from Djakarta, he
clued in the U.S. "business community" on why they should be
interested in Cohen's trip:
"Commercial disputes have ... divided Washington and Jakarta
in recent months. In Indonesia, U.S. business deals struck
during former President Suharto's 32-year-long rule continue to
come under attack from nationalists and reformers alike. U.S.
officials have been particularly critical of Indonesia's
refusal to abide by contracts to buy electricity from a number
of U.S. power companies. Some in Jakarta maintain that the
contracts were detrimental to the country because they involved
allegedly corrupt arrangements with members of Mr. Suharto's
family and their cronies--charges Washington and the U.S.
companies deny.
"Disputes over mining, oil and gas, and telecommunications
ventures have also caused diplomatic friction. In one instance,
U.S. officials have threatened Mr. Wahid's government with
expropriating Indonesian assets overseas should Jakarta fail to
pay out a $290 million insurance claim lodged by the U.S.
government's political-risk insurer, the Overseas Private
Investment Corp....
"Repeated public criticism of Indonesia's government and
military by U.S. Ambassador Robert S. Gelbard has also rankled
lawmakers and bureaucrats. Among other things, Mr. Gelbard has
openly voiced U.S. concerns over the security situation in West
Timor, rising terrorism in Jakarta, and a deteriorating
business environment. He has also complained that some
Indonesian government officials were acting in an
'anti-American' fashion."
Washington is now paying lip service to democracy and clean
government after having lived comfortably with Suharto's
fascist rule for 32 years.
This is the real issue: the new Indonesian government's
inability or unwillingness to sustain a "business environment"
suitable to Western billionaire corporations. There are strikes
and demonstrations every day against the starvation wages paid
by foreign corporations. There's a rising tide of resentment at
the dictates of foreign capital. Meanwhile, Cohen is telling
the new Indonesian government not to reexamine the sweetheart
deals its predecessor made with U.S. corporations.
Where were they in 1965?
It has been abundantly proven that Suharto took power in
1965 with the support and connivance of Washington. This
fascist military takeover led to a bloodbath in which at least
a million people were massacred and hundreds of thousands were
herded into concentration camps. In recent years, some of the
CIA officers involved in the Indonesian slaughters have even
bragged about their role there.
At the time, officials in the Lyndon Johnson administration
could barely conceal their glee. They were hoping this
"accomplishment" in Indonesia would set a precedent for a
similar victory in Vietnam, leading to the decimation of the
communists and progressive nationalists.
As soon as "stability" was restored in Indonesia, U.S.
corporations like Uniroyal, Union Carbide, Freeport Sulphur,
Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Alcoa, Atlantic Richfield, Mobil and
Tenneco descended on Indonesia like vultures. They thought it a
bargain to let Suharto and his family take a personal cut as
they gave away Indonesia's natural resources. The general's
wife was jokingly referred to as "Madame Tien Percent" in the
businessmen's clubs.
Where is the source of this corruption? Doesn't it begin
with the web of corporations, Pentagon planners and government
insiders who, by conspiring with and then arming a few key
military men, take over the economies of poor countries all
over the world? Yet this monumental crime, which results in
profits for a few and misery for hundreds of millions of
people, is so commonplace in the era of monopoly capitalism and
imperialism that it is considered a clever business
practice.
But what about East Timor? Isn't there some concern in
Washington over Indonesia's oppression of the Timorese
people?
East Timor, which in 1974 had risen up against hundreds of
years of Portuguese colonial rule, fell under the iron heel of
Indonesia's fascist generals because the U.S. government was
afraid it could become another Cuba in the south Pacific. The
Gerald Ford administration gave Suharto the go-ahead to invade
East Timor in 1975. The troop ships were actually launched
while Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were in
Jakarta toasting Suharto at the end of a state visit.
That invasion ultimately cost another 200,000 lives, or one
third of the East Timorese population.
So powerful is the imperialist media, however, that the
current administration in Washington thinks it can get away
with pretending to be an indignant protector of small
peoples--like in Kosovo.
Holbrooke yet again
Which brings us to Richard Holbrooke, an architect of the
Clinton administration's war on Yugoslavia and now U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations. Holbrooke was Assistant
Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during
the Carter administration. From 1978 to 1980, when Indonesia's
suppression of Fretilin, the East Timor liberation front,
reached genocidal proportions, he recommended an increase in
U.S. military aid and weapons sales to Indonesia.
An article in the March 6, 1980, Christian Science Monitor
described the attitude of the State Department when Holbrooke
headed the section dealing with Indonesia and East Timor:
"Francisco Fernandes, a Roman Catholic priest who served for
several years as head of the Timorese refugee community, said
he knew of no attempt by U.S. officials to seek out and
interview any of the more than 2,000 such refugees who have
been living in Portugal for the past several years.
"Even today, with the magnitude of the East Timor problem
better known, refugees going directly to the State Department
in Washington with their stories find that most officials here
give the benefit of the doubt to the Indonesians.
"'He acted like a lawyer for the Indonesians,' said one
refugee after talking with a State Department official
recently. . . ."
And here's what Holbrooke himself had to say about the
Indonesia of General Suharto, when asked to comment on the
problem of East Timor:
"Indonesia, with a population of 150 million people, is the
fifth largest nation in the world, is a moderate member of the
Non-Aligned Movement, is an important oil producer--which plays
a moderate role within OPEC--and occupies a strategic position
astride the sea lanes between the Pacific and Indian
Oceans.
"President Suharto and other prominent Indonesian leaders
have publicly called for the release of our hostages in Iran.
Indonesia's position within the Association of South East Asian
Nations--ASEAN--is also important and it has played a central
role in supporting Thailand and maintaining the security of
Thailand in the face of Vietnam's destabilizing actions in
Indo-China [sic].
"Finally, Indonesia has provided humane treatment for over
50,000 Indo-Chinese refugees and taken the initiative in
offering an island site as an ASEAN refugee processing center.
Indonesia is, of course, important to key U.S. allies in the
region, especially Japan and Australia. We highly value our
cooperative relationship with Indonesia." (From Foreign
Assistance and Related Programs: Appropriations for 1981.
Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on
Appropriations, House of Representatives, 96th Congress, June
1980.)
Now Holbrooke is a leading player in the cabal of
imperialist "statesmen" who threaten Indonesia with sanctions
and other pressures in the name of democracy and human rights
for East Timor. Yet all sides, the generals as well as the
reformers, know that the real issues between the United States
and Indonesia are the oil and gas--some of which lies offshore
East Timor--the electric plants, the rubber, the gold, the
sulfur, and all the other riches of the Indonesian
archipelago.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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