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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (55786)	9/23/1999 7:28:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 108807

I have not been to East Timor, though I've knocked around Indonesia a bit, and since I live in the neighborhood, I follow the politics reasonably closely. The human rights situation in Jakarta is certainly better than that in East Timor: it is more in the public eye, and the city is not trying to secede. The Indonesian human rights situation has to be seen in historical perspective. The same tactics that we so deplore when used against the Timorese were overlooked and tacitly approved not so long ago, when they were used against actual and suspected communists. When East Timor was originally occupied in 1975, the US and its allies breathed a sigh of quiet relief (and, some say, actively encouraged the move); FRETILIN, which seemed sure to take power, was regarded as left-leaning, and since nobody wanted to intervene and nobody wanted a new leftist presence in Asia, and Indonesian occupation seemed the easiest way out. Now, of course, things have changed. Or our perception of things has changed; theirs has not. In much of the third world, human life that is not associated with "us" is not given much regard at all. Seeing the big picture is a luxury that comes with prosperity.