U.$. government now admitting role in East Timor genocide by MC5 Fully declassified U.$. government documents published on the Internet December 6th show that President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave the go-ahead for Indonesia's attack on East Timor that killed over 200,000 people, over a quarter and maybe a half of the people of East Timor.(1) The United $tates was arming the Indonesian regime led by General Suharto at the time and declassified documents show that Henry Kissinger admitted to Suharto that his use of U.$. weapons could create a problem for the United $tates. Such statements show that Ford and Kissinger were aware of the details of the situation and knew what they were doing and why they had to cover it up. East Timor was a colony of Portugal when the government fell in Portugal in April 1974. At that time, Indonesia said it favored independence for East Timor but also started thinking about it as a 27th province of Indonesia. Indeed, Portugal issued transition plans for East Timor to have its independence no later than 1978. In July, 1975, the pro- independence FRETLIN (Frente Revolucionaria do Timor-Leste Indepenente) party won 55% of the vote in elections, but Indonesia raised the red-scare against FRETLIN and found open ears in Ford and Kissinger. Indonesia then launched its genocide to take control of East Timor. Since 1975, the United $tates has lied about its role in East Timor. Henry Kissinger was still denying his role as late as quotes obtained from him in 1996 and 1999 and he did not answer a phone call from the Washington Post about the released documents published on the Internet December 6th.(2) After the genocidal invasion of 1975, Kissinger chastised his staff for preparing a memo on cutting off military sales to Indonesia in line with existing U.$. law. Apparently the staff expected that the U.$. government would be forced to follow its own laws about offensive weapons use.(3) [The United $tates supplied as much as 90 percent of Indonesia's weapons on the condition that they only be used for defense.(6)] Instead, Kissinger kept the arms pipeline open. Advising President Suharto to take East Timor but not to discourage foreign investment, Kissinger provided a typical example of how the U.$. government really works. Constitutions and laws are to fool the naive: the rulers support genocide for profit regardless of the stated laws. The sort of persyn who asks "why would they do that?" when confronted with the realities of U.$. imperialism needs to go look at these documents. In May, 1998 General Suharto fell from power. In 1999, Bill Clinton cut off military aid to Indonesia. UN peacekeepers arrived and elections have since put FRETLIN back in power. If not for the supposed collapse of communism, the U.$. imperialists would still be aiding Indonesia in repression of East Timor. Once the Soviet Union fell apart, it was not surprising that the regime in Indonesia -- dependent on U.S. aid -- also fell apart. MIM's predecessors worked actively on the street on the subject of East Timor in the early 1980s. At that time, only Noam Chomsky, a small activist group and Cultural Survival were non- communists working on the issue. The U.$. media blacked out the issue completely. Almost by policy, poorly informed corporate reporters do not obtain mental clarity until powerful government officials tell them they have it. Once again, it is a case where the public wishing to know what is going on should be reading MIM Notes or take the risk that the corporate media lackeys of the government will not admit what is going on till 25 or 50 years later. This lesson is not simply a lesson against the corporate media. It is also a damnation of "democratic socialists" and other "democratic" activists who actually believe there is "democracy" in the United $tates. FRETLIN is one of many of a long list of election winners that Uncle Sam subsequently steamrolled with military repression. We say once again that people spreading illusions about the existence of "democracy" are getting people killed.(4) Even in 1999, pro-Indonesia militias killed over 1,000 people once they voted 78.5% in favor of independence. FRETLIN was unable to protect its people.(5) Notes: 1. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/ ; 2. Washington Post reporting on this subject, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A5291-2001Dec6.html 3. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/#doc4 4. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/opposedem.html 5. See our criticism of Chomsky (and like minded anarchists and "democratic" activists) and the United Nations regarding the 1999 referendum aftermath. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/text.php?mimf ile=mn196/chomsky.txt ; see also some of our MIM Notes articles on East Timor http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/etimor/ ; figures for massacres in 1999 varied, and the 1,000 figure is merely those murders reported to the UN. UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 236-7. 6. Reuters, 6 Dec 2001.