This mighty be how it would look -- Dion Giles, Fremantle, Western Australia
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http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/satire.htm
An Interview with the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Portuguese Timor
There may be no busier woman in the world than the president of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Portuguese Timor. On Sept. 6
she found time to sit for a 20-minute interview at her office in The Hague.
"What has been your greatest accomplishment in your 18 months as president
of the Tribunal?"
"Without question, the 53 indictments. As yet we've apprehended only eleven
suspected war criminals - all low-ranking Indonesian army officers or foot
soldiers - and brought six to trial. But we convicted all six."
"Of what crimes?"
"Torture, rape and murder, and in two cases, ordering underlings to commit
those acts."
"As we speak, three days after the U.N. announced an overwhelming vote for
independence in East Timor, the militias who favoured union with Indonesia
are on a murderous rampage. Are they linked to the Indonesian army?"
"Of course. The army formed the militias in part to give itself plausible
deniability with the Tribunal. But the army deceives only those who wish to
be deceived. Presently we are preparing indictments of Timorese death squad
leaders, their Indonesian commanders and General Wiranto."
"What is the time frame covered by the Tribunal?"
"From 1975, when Indonesia invaded East Timor, to the present."
"And that explains the indictments of former President Suharto and several
retired generals for the worst massacres, from 1975 to 1978?"
"Indeed. It also explains our indictments of presidents Ford and Carter and
their key aides - Henry Kissinger, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Zbigniew
Brzezinski and Richard Holbrooke."
"But they didn't order any massacres in East Timor."
"No, but Ford approved the invasion and both he and Carter provided
Indonesia the materiel and diplomatic cover to conduct the slaughter. Added
to this monstrous moral crime is a legal crime: U.S. law mandates that such
military aid be used for defensive purposes only."
"What has been your greatest frustration as Tribunal president?"
"The same one as Judge McDonald, who heads the Yugoslavia Tribunal: watching
the big fish come and go with impunity. I nearly kicked my TV in the other
day as Hillary Clinton strolled with Moynihan in full view of the Secret
Service and hundreds of media. No one even attempted an arrest."
"What was Moynihan's crime?"
"He was Ford's Ambassador to the U.N. He writes in his memoirs of the
administration's desire that the U.N. 'prove utterly ineffective' in its
efforts to force an Indonesian withdrawal. He boasts, 'This task was given
to me and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success.'"
"A proud man."
"Of what? Deploying his diplomatic skills to assure that the slaughter of
tens of thousands of Timorese could continue?"
"I understand that on a recent trip to Washington you tried to seize Henry
Kissinger."
"I was visiting my son, Charlie, who plays linebacker for Howard University.
We heard that Katherine Graham, who owns the Washington Post, was throwing a
party for Henry, so Charlie and I crashed it with the intent of nabbing the
honored guest and whisking him off to The Hague. Graham greeted us at the
door and said Henry left an hour ago to play tennis at Ted Koppel's. So we
took a cab to Koppel's. Ted greeted us at the door and said Henry had gone
back to the party."
"The old shell game."
"These power-elite poobahs were shielding an indicted war criminal, and they
thought it was funny."
"So you believe Kissinger, Moynihan, and Holbrooke - who was Carter's
official Indonesia apologist - are just as guilty as the soldier firing on a
peaceful crowd or the militiaman wielding a machete?"
"More so. Foot soldiers are under enormous pressure to commit atrocities. If
their commander sees them wavering, it could be curtains. Privileged U.S.
officials are under no such pressure. The worst that would happen if they
publicly objected to underwriting mass murder is they'd be fired, then go
into the private sector and make a fortune."
"So you see these indictments as a deterrent?"
"Absolutely. But we'll deter ongoing and future support for aggression and
repression only if we follow the indictments with arrests, trials,
convictions and stiff sentences."
"So if you could nab a Ford or Carter"
"Or Reagan, Bush, Thatcher or Blair - remember, war crimes in East Timor may
have waxed and waned, but they've never stopped, and the Brits have bloody
hands, too. One conviction would do the trick."
"A member of your staff said you may soon indict several U.S. media executives."
"Indeed. They were instrumental in keeping public opinion out of the
equation in the crucial first months and years of Indonesia's occupation.
The American people would have demanded that their government compel its
dependent Indonesian ally to withdraw at the first sign of mass murder - if
they had only known that such was taking place."
"They were kept in the dark?"
"Almost completely. Let's imagine Milosevic was a dependent U.S. ally and
that America stepped up aid and apologetics as his forces stormed through
Kosovo. Let's further imagine that the slaughter and the indispensable U.S.
contribution were covered completely and accurately. The combination of
popular outrage and Clinton's subservience to public opinion would have
produced an immediate about-face. In Timor in 1975-78, no information
equalled no public outrage and no public pressure."
"Do you anticipate indictments for current Timor coverage?"
"One already has been issued for ABC's Charles Gibson, who on Aug. 31 told
his Good Morning America audience that 'It's been an extraordinarily violent
independence movement there, with hundreds of thousands of people killed.'
It appears the Indonesian army is writing his scripts."
"What do you make of the recent statements of Clinton and Albright urging
Indonesian intervention to restore peace?"
"Again, it's tantamount to issuing a plea to Milosevic a week into the
ethnic cleansing to send in more ethnic cleansers. We're preparing
indictments of Clinton and Albright, who've shown greater concern for
Indonesia's 'reputation' than for its Timorese victims. 'Please, Mr.
Milosevic, the paramilitaries' massacres and mass rapes are harming your
image. Do something before the tarnish sticks.' That's the moral level of
their statements."
"Thank you, Madam President, and good luck"
Dennis Hans is a freelance writer who first wrote about East Timor in the
Sept. 30, 1985 edition of Christianity Crisis. His work has also appeared
in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and
Covert Action Information Bulletin, among other outlets. Hans is an
occasional adjunct professor of mass communications and American foreign
policy at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.
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