DATE=9/22/1999
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=U-N PEACEKEEPERS TO EAST TIMOR
NUMBER=6-11482
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: The arrival of United nations peacekeeping
troops in yet another of the world's trouble spots,
this one, the south Pacific island of East Timor, is
drawing a good deal of comment in the U-S press.
We get an early sampling, after the first contingent
arrived, from _____________ now in today's U-S Opinion
Roundup.
TEXT: A large force of ground troops, led by an
Australian contingent, and headed by an Australian
Army general, is moving into East Timor from the
northern Australian city of Darwin.
So far they have encountered little resistance from
either the Indonesian army, which has pledged its
cooperation, or from the roving bands of armed
militias that terrorized the half-island territory
after the pro-independence vote last month.
In the U-S press, there is both praise that the force
has finally begun to restore order, and sorrow that it
could not have been sent sooner, or that violence
surrounding the vote could not have been better
anticipated by the world community. We begin in
Minnesota, where the [Minneapolis] Star-Tribune
laments how the situation got out of hand on the south
Pacific island.
VOICE: As U-N peacekeeping planes approached Dili
airport Monday, Indonesian troops chased goats from
the runway to make way for the landing. Now thousands
of Australian-led troops are moving into East Timor,
chasing down Indonesian militiamen to make way for
democracy. This is what the world wants, what the U-N
mission was launched to secure. But it isn't enough
for East Timor. When a gang of thugs invades a home,
beats its occupants bloody and turns them into the
street, it isn't sufficient just to reinstall the
rightful owners. Something more is called for.
Civilization insists on a measure of justice. What
has happened in East Timor is far graver, far more
deliberate, than random thuggery. This was a shrewdly
orchestrated attempt to subvert East Timor's bid for
independence . .. The people who have wrought these
outrages must be called to account. The surest
mechanism is an international war-crimes tribunal of
the sort now probing atrocities in Rwanda and the
Balkans.
TEXT: In the Rhode Island capital, however, there is
concern on the part of The Providence Journal that the
basic premise of the independence vote is faulty.
VOICE: Some observers are understandably very
skeptical about a territory with a population of about
800-thousand [people] (smaller than Rhode Island's)
entering the world scene as a sovereign nation. They
suspect that making East Timor formally independent
will simply add to the world's growing list of
functionally dependent micro-states. An even bigger
problem is posed by the attitude of Jakarta's
military, which fears, not without reason, that
allowing East Timor to secede will encourage drives
for independence in Aceh, Irian Jaya and other
provinces of the vast Indonesian archipelago. The
military is sworn to protect the nation's territorial
integrity; as the Clinton administration seems
realistic enough to understand, the military can't be
expected to accept graciously the thought of the
nation's territory being torn off by bits and pieces.
TEXT: Some concerns from The Providence [Rhode
Island] Journal.
In the Pacific Northwest, The Seattle Times is totally
in favor of the U-S role in the East Timor rescue
force, and says President Clinton has done the right
thing.
VOICE: Argentina is among those offering help, but
the core of a U-N-endorsed peacekeeping force in East
Timor is from Indonesia's own anxious neighborhood.
That's as it should be. Relief is on the way. The
first airdrops of good, clothing and shelter have
landed. The first multinational wave of troops
arrived over the weekend. The Clinton white House is
still in the throes of contorted explanations as to
why including U-S troops in the rescue mission can
help stabilize Indonesia's democracy. No half-baked,
defensive apologies are needed. The president did not
want to put the U-S military in the lead, and properly
so. But limited roles in logistics, communications
and intelligence positions do not break that
commitment. .. Even the Republican leadership on
Capitol Hill, which refused to support the president
on Kosovo, praised [Mr.] Clinton's restraint and
endorsed the narrowly defined U-S role in East Timor.
TEXT: To the Pacific Island state of Hawaii now, and
the lament from Honolulu's afternoon Star-Bulletin
that the force is good, but arrived far to late to
save so many lost lives.
VOICE: Once again an international force has landed
in a war-torn land, this time the half-island of East
Timor in Indonesia. As in the case of Kosovo only a
few months ago, the arrival comes too late to prevent
a slaughter of civilians. The massacre could have
been averted. There were ample warnings that violence
might follow the August 30th plebiscite on independence
from Indonesia, but the world community didn't take
measures to prevent it. Still, the arrival of a 75-
hundred member force is a welcome though belated
effort to restore order.
TEXT: Lastly, some first hand observations from the
Reverend D. Jay Losher, the minister of a Presbyterian
Church in Dallas, Texas, as printed on the Op-Ed page
of The Dallas Morning News. Reverend Losher was one
of the independent observers during the August
independence vote on East Timor. He says the U-N
rescue mission is just the beginning of a long process
of rejuvenation for the ravaged island.
VOICE: East Timor truly is the land of the living
dead. If there ever was a sound case for humanitarian
intervention to stop widespread murder, this is it.
The United nations has decided to send in peacekeeping
troops, and Indonesia has pledged to cooperate. Both
actions should be applauded and supported, but the
restoration of East Timor is far from accomplished.
What else should be done? . There seems to be a
general consensus that the United States can't get
involved. But that begs the question, since we have
been deeply involved in the turmoil in East Timor for
24 years. The Indonesian military's anti-insurgency
tactics were learned in our own U-S military war
colleges, and the United States has sold that
country's military both technology and weapons. The
United Nations must be encouraged to deploy all of its
peacekeeping troops as rapidly as is feasible. And
support must be maintained . U-S ground troops should
supplement the international peacekeeping force. Why
U-S troops? Because Indonesia is a primary client of
ours. Without our presence, the message that the
entire world condemns ethnic cleansing in East Timor
won't be sounded with clarity. .. After the process
of independence is complete, those who have engineered
the ethnic cleansing must be brought to trial under
international auspices. ..
TEXT: On that personal note from a recent observer,
we conclude this sampling of comment on the current
situation in East Timor from the U-S press. (Signed)
NEB/ANG/PT
22-Sep-1999 19:17 PM LOC (22-Sep-1999 2317 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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