[Marxism] Re: East Timor replies

[Ggregray@xxxxxxx]

 In his very intersting book  "Reluctant Saviour " Clinton Fernandes quotes a
briefing from the Australian Defence Intelligence Organisation at pp51-2 :
"ABRI's( Indonesian acronym for the Armed Forces of the Republic of
Indonesia) decision to arm local militias has drawn its first blood. As long as 
ABRI
continues to contract-out some of its security responsibilities, more clashes
are likely..... ABRI recognises that using force against pro-referendum groups
will continue to attract international criticism. So using force against the
referendum movement looks likely to continue to be subcontracted."

At p53  Clinton Fernandes writes:
"...The clear implication from these transcripts (of intercepts of
cvommunication between militia and  Indonesian military commanders) and others 
like
them, is that the militia were a proxy of the TNI ( Indonesian military), not an
independent force with a representative domestic constituency. It was clear
that the TNI was continuing its proxy campaign against the East Timorese."

Now, unless I am missing something I don't think I have a major disagreement
with Clinton on this. I'm sure he agrees that there was a pro-integrationist
faction within the East Timorese. A proxy fight means that you use someone else
to fight your battles. The US , for example fought the USSR by proxy in
Afghanistan. But the forces it used, trained, armed and encouraged were local
Afghanistanis plus the international brigade of mujaheddin led by Osama Bin 
Laden
and others.

While it was the case that the Indonesian military played a direct command
role with the militia in 1999 (it, of course, regarded East Timor as a province
of Indonesia at the time) who was it sub-contracting to or using as a proxy if
not East Timorese who for whatever reasons were ready to carry out the
Indonesian occupiers wishes.
Greg Adler



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