Obeissance

TorgoX on 2002-05-26T23:04:21

Dear Log,

«More recently, it was the turn of the Bush administration's "moderate", the secretary of state, Colin Powell. He wrote to the incoming government [of East Timor] a month ago, warning them to give a written promise not to prosecute any US citizens for crimes against humanity under the procedures of the newly established international criminal court. Otherwise the US Congress would find it difficult to go on giving aid, he advised them.

There are no US troops in the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, making the US demand almost entirely theoretical. The urgency of the pledge being demanded from East Timor was hard to see, let alone the propriety of forcing a country to make exceptions to one of the first international treaties it intends to sign, but on this occasion the Timorese gave in. The principle is the thing: even embryonic states have to make a declaration of dependence to the world's only remaining empire before they assume their notional "independence". »

--"East Timor is independent. So long as it does as it's told"

Maybe more complex

darobin on 2002-05-27T00:31:52

It may be a touch more complex that than, and I do emphasize may because I do not have sufficient background on this case.

A few years ago East Timor (prior to independence or UNO rule) was seriously shelled by "navy boats". Of course, the only reason anyone outside Timor knows about it is because there were Australian casualties. There is serious suspicion (and some images, but it's hard to know the truth from pictures these days) that the navy doing the shelling was comprised of US boats, not Indonesian boats.

I do not wish to cast aspersions without better knowledge of the case, but such a request doesn't tend to go against the grain of these accusations.

I wish I had the time to look closer into this situation, perhaps someone with better knowledge of Timor history will chime in.

Re:Maybe more complex

TorgoX on 2002-05-27T00:55:39

I'd love if you could dig up a story about the shelling. I've tried poking around in Google, but I get only noise.

Re:Maybe more complex

darobin on 2002-05-28T15:26:20

I can't find anything on the shelling itself, though I rememver first hearing about it in an ABC (the Australian one) documentary.

I haven't found much time to look though. One thing I found is:

"Finally, according to the State Department, 90 percent of the weapons used in the invasion came from the United States. Two years later [1977], as the atrocities in East Timor were reaching a peak, President Jimmy Carter authorized an addition $112 million in weapons sales to Indonesia."

Re:Maybe more complex

darobin on 2002-05-28T15:30:01

And http://www.gwu.edu/user/nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/ gives good background on the situation.