In Reply to: I don't know where to start posted by cliff on Sunday, 7. November 2004 at 02:37 Bali Time:
I am afraid of exaggeration beyond the truth.
There were about 100.000( not 250.000 ) people died in East Timor between 1975 and 1979,they died from famine rather than killed by Indonesian army. Yes the army was indirectly involved in this catastrophe, as they removed East Timoreses from their land, the so-called resettlement program and resettled the villagers in hamlets that were easier to control than the previous disparate rural communities, in an attempt to quell a guerrilla warfare mounted by a leftish organization Fretilin.
I think this is not a genocide, as they were just victimized by a civil war. No racial, political nor cultural groups were systematically killed at that time.
Yes there was a massacre in East Timor -the infamous Dilli massacre- It had taken its toll between 100-180 people were killed by anti-riot Indonesian army.
Papua : Suharto-style handpicked local governor assignment was implied in all 27 Indonesian provinces, it's not only in Papua, some proponents saw it as an adroitness, this explained why he had been 30 years in office, he couldn't beat Fidel Castro, though... more than 40 years !
Aceh: Yes GAM had already existed since 1970, but it stayed dormant during Suharto periode, because its leaders were in exile.They backed to Aceh just in the eve of Suharto's fall.
Amassing US$ 47 billion is yet to be proven. There has been a mass-media/airwaves bad habit in Indonesia that is releasing unreliable'facts'. If you were familiar with one of Mrs. Megawati minister whose name is Mr.Laksamana Sukardi, you should have known that he was accused to bring USD$ 150 million government money with him to Australia. Mr. Laksamana contested the case to the Indonesian Press Ethic Committe and he win.
TNI killing its 2 million people ? Something flawed might be happen in recruiting and training them. The instructors might drill them to shoot ordinary people and not to kill enemy's soldiers.What a mess !
Estimated Indo armed forces were army 200.000, navy 60.000 and air force 30.000. These datas were quoted in 1990. If we assume there are no killing ( by armed forces ) anymore over the past 10 years,war in Aceh excluded, those 'notorious' 290.000 guys should have executed 2 million people in the rest of the years,it's hard to believe, as telecommunication system in Indonesia has been fully developed rapidly and it's sophisticated too, any event in the regions even in remote ones would be known by all Indonesian and the world, I've never heard the Ruanda-scale killing in Indonesia,beside,Mr. Koffi Anan in his Manhattan office for sure would hear and send his envoy to Indonesia on dealing this matter. No such a deployment has occured so far.
Honestly, I'm a bit concerned with any apriori reports on Indo security groups, whether they are cops, military personeels or hotel's guards especially in this forum, as it would elicit apprehension among would-be-Bali-goers to an unnecessary degree.
I think reciting reports from an ivory castle without confirming them with facts on the ground would get into unreasonable judgment.