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Martin Lehmann - 26 September 1999
Australian governments since 1975 must share a huge responsibility for the tragic events in East Timor.
It all started with self-styled "elder statesman", Gough Whitlam. This so-called champion of the downtrodden, without reference to the parliament, gave the nod in 1975 to the murderous Indonesian regime that it was OK as far as Australia was concerned, to invade East Timor. With Whitlam's acquiescence, the Indonesians invaded the tiny province of East Timor on Australia's doorstep, just two hours flight from Darwin.
In a series of purges and massacres since 1975 the brutal regime has murdered at least a third of the population of East Timor, a genocide that ranks with that of Pol Pot in Cambodia.
And what were our governments doing all this time? They were pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars into supplying Indonesia with military weapons and training. In 1993, Prime Minister Paul Keating gave the regime $114 million in military aid while at the same entering into
dubious personal business deals with Indonesian officials.
Australia is the only country in the world to officially endorse Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
This begs the question, why does the Australian government, a signatory to United Nations conventions on human rights, actively support a brutal, murderous military dictatorship? In my opinion, this makes any Australian Prime Minister or Cabinet Minister involved in giving aid to the regime, knowing that some of that aid was to be used for murder or genocide, accessories to those crimes. As such, they should be put on trial along with General Wiranto and his murderous thugs, for crimes against humanity.
The Indonesian army - an instrument of state terror
The Indonesian army is not the same as an army of a Western democracy. Our army is set up to protect us against external aggression, and is under the control of the people via the parliament.
The Indonesian army has the added roles of maintaining internal security, and enforcing the control of the dictatorship. It is not accountable to, or under the control of, the people.
As in East Timor, it can also be an instrument of state terror.
The Indonesian army was also set up to be largely self-funding by being allowed to own, control and run businesses and business ventures. The ensuing graft and corruption ensured the army leaders remained loyal to the despotic Soeharto.
East Timor, as well as satisfying the expansionist needs of Indonesia's rulers, was another business venture for the Indonesian army. It provided an income for 30,000 troops and their families. General Wiranto as head of the army must be held accountable for the genocide in East Timor.
Australia's pathetic defences
Prime Minister Howard has admitted Australia will be struggling to keep a paltry 4,000 troops in East Timor for more than nine months.
What hope have we got of defending our country?
What a terrible indictment of recent governments. Politicians have been stealing money from defence to throw it around in welfare payments to buy their re-election.
The people should insist that Australia maintains a minimum defence capability. Let us re-introduce conscription if necessary to bolster our troop numbers.
The United Nations - an irrelevancy?
When will the UN learn the lessons of Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor?
Around one million men, women and children were slaughtered by psychopathic dictators in the last decade while thousands of highly-paid UN bureaucrats wrung their hands in despair, talked, shuffled papers and attended cocktail parties.
If the UN is not to become a total irrelevancy it must take urgent steps to form its own international police force.
This police force must be armed and operated like a modern army. It must be answerable only to the United Nations. It must be able to act swiftly. Such a police force, introduced at the time of the referendum, would have prevented the slaughter and destruction by the rampaging militia in East Timor.
It could also have saved half a million lives in Rwanda.
Nothing will happen of course while the world's greatest abuser of human rights, China, has the power of veto on the UN Security Council. China, and often Russia, veto almost every effort of the UN to prevent war, invasion and human rights violations.
We have the ridiculous and tragic situation where the UN has forced western democracies to make laws preventing parents from even slapping their children, while millions of mal-nourished children are working as slave labour in the regimes of the despots and dictators.
The UN must be re-vamped. Only elected democracies should be allowed to sit on the Security Council. There should be no power of veto. The UN should have a permanent tribunal to investigate and bring to trial the perpetrators crimes against humanity.
Only then may we see the United Nations fulfilling its promise.
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