AUT: East Timor Action Network (ETAN)URGENT ACTION ALERT (fwd)

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1999 16:33:03 -0500
From: Tom Baxter <tata@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: tombaxter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: Veterans For Peace <tata@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: East Timor Action Network (ETAN)URGENT ACTION ALERT

East Timor Action Network (ETAN)URGENT ACTION ALERT

Post-Vote Alert #2: U.S. Government Inaction Results in More
Death as Wave
After Wave of Violence Sweeps East Timor

Call Today to Demand an End to the Killing. Your action can save
lives!

Less than 24 hours after the UN announced that more than 78%
of registered
voters in East Timor voted to reject Indonesia's autonomy package,
Indonesian military and paramilitary forces sharply escalated
their
campaign of terror.  All observers from the International Federation
for
East Timor Observer Project (IFET-OP) have been forced to evacuate
East
Timor due to rampant violence by both paramilitary forces and
TNI
(Indonesian military forces), including the Kopassus Special
Forces, known
for its atrocious human rights abuses.  Dili is burning; the
streets are
deserted and refugees are amassing in churches and other relief
centers.
Many children are among the dead.  Paramilitary forces roam the
streets of
Dili unimpeded, while joint militia/army roadblocks block entrance
to and
exit from the capitol. The paramilitaries and TNI are systematically
targeting buildings which house refugees.

With the evacuation of UN staff and media from outlying towns,
foreign
observers are unable to confirm the extent of violence outside
Dili, but
it is believed to be severe.  Hundreds of houses have been burned
and
dozens killed in Maliana alone.  Reports have come in of mutilated
bodies
littering the road to West Timor. Thousands more East Timorese
are now
refugees, many of them forced onto trucks headed for unknown
destinations.

TNI must withdraw immediately from East Timor.

The U.S. must offer full support for increased UN personnel and
an
expanded UN mission mandate. The UN must be granted control of
administration and security in East Timor.

The U.S. must cut off all military and financial assistance immediately!

** CALL Defense Secretary William Cohen at 703-692-7100 (fax:
703-697-9080). Demand that the United States cut off all remaining
military
aid to Indonesia until it removes its troops from East Timor
and disbands
the paramilitary groups roaming the streets.

** CALL World Bank President James Wolfensohn at 202-458-2907
(fax:
202-522-0355).  Urge him to suspend financial assistance to Indonesia
unless it complies immediately with UN demands to end the violence
in East
Timor.  Also call the Executive Director for the United States
to the
World Bank, Ms. Jan Piercy at 202-458-0110 (fax: 202-477-2967).
 Demand
that the U.S. support the suspension of assistance to Indonesia.

** CALL your senators and representative.  Urge them to call
Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright, President Clinton, and Secretary of
Defense
William Cohen directly.  The Congressional switchboard number
is
202-224-3121 or check www.congress.gov for contact information
on
individual offices.

** CALL Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth at 202-647-9596.
 Don't
let the staff transfer you to the Indonesia desk. You want this
message to
reach Roth himself.  The Indonesia desk officers are already
doing what
they can.

For more information, contact Karen at the New York ETAN office
at
914-428-7299 or salama74@xxxxxxx, or Brad Simpson at IFET at
773-255-7949.
web address: www.etan.org








     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---