Ford responsible for East Timor genocide

[tocqueville]

It's late fall, 1975, Portugal has relinquished their claim to East Timor, the Eastern half of an Island in the Indonesion archipelago, and the native inhabitants are preparing for independence. But, the US backed Indonesian regime of President Suharto, a brutal tyrant, has no intention of allowing the Timorese to assert their independence. They are busily preparing to snuff out that aspiration by force. In December 1975, President Ford and Secretary Kissinger visit Indonesia. Two newly declassified documents from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, released to the National Security Archive, shed light on the Ford administration's relationship with President Suharto of Indonesia during 1975. Of special importance is the record of Ford's and Kissinger's meeting with Suharto in early December 1975.

(http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/#doc4)

On the eve of Indonesia's full-scale invasion of East Timor, President Ford and Secretary Kissinger stopped in Jakarta en route from China where they had just met with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. During this meeting with Suharto, Ford and Kissinger took great pains to assure Suharto that they would not oppose the invasion. Ford was unambiguous: "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have."

Kissinger did indeed stress that "the use of US-made arms could create problems," but then added that, "It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self defense or is a foreign operation." Thus ...

Kissinger's concern was not about whether U.S. arms would be used offensively--and hence illegally--but whether the act would actually be interpreted as such--a process he clearly intended to manipulate.(26) In any case, Kissinger added: "It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly."
Indeed, timing and damage control were very important to the Americans, as Kissinger told Suharto: "We would be able to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens happens after we return. . . If you have made plans, we will do our best to keep everyone quiet until the President returns home." Kissinger also asked Suharto if he anticipated a "long guerilla war," apparently aware that a quick military success would be easier to spin than a long campaign. Suharto acknowledged that there "will probably be a small guerilla war" but he was cagey enough not to predict its duration. Nevertheless, his military colleagues were optimistic; as one of the architects of Indonesian policy, General Ali Murtopo explained to a U.S. scholar some months before the invasion, "the whole business will be settled in three weeks."(27)

After the invasion and slaughter of East Timor in which about 1/3 of that island's population was decimated (approximately 200,000), the ever thoughtful Ford sent by diplomatic pouch a small gift to General Suharto, a set of golf balls.

http://www.eurotrib.com/ (look in the right column, direct linking doesn't work)

this has been posted on the DKos too

[d_b]

1. But he was such a class act.

He supported gay rights.

And opposed the shit-fest in Iraq

The last great Republican President.


:sarcasm:

[Tom Joad]

2. I posted this the day he died.

In some sense, i changed my perception abit. On Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/27/1638254

Alan Nairn. Investigative Journalist, asked Ford about this meeting with Suharto. He says he does not remember discussing East Timor.

From the above link:
Well, I interviewed Ford by phone, and beforehand had told his assistant that I wanted to discuss his meeting with General Suharto, the Indonesian Dictator, on December 5th. So coming into the interview Ford knew the topic. And when I asked Ford whether he did in fact authorize the invasion of East Timor, he said, “Frankly, I don't recall.” He didn't remember. And I believed him.

What Ford said was that there were many topics on the agenda that day with Suharto. Timor was not very high on the agenda. It was one of the lesser topics, and he just couldn't remember whether he had authorized this invasion, which ended up killing 1/3 of the Timorese population. And it's kind of an illustration of the fact that when, like the United States, you're a global power with regimes everywhere dependant on your weapons, you can start wars, authorize wars, take actions that result in mass deaths in a fairly casual way.

____

I do not think that if it was discussed, that Suharto said "Mr. Ford, we are asking permission to kill 1/3 of the population of East Timor, maybe 200,000 people, that's not a problem for you is it?" It was probably cloaked in some diplomatic language "we are asserting our right to annex East Timor" never discussing how they will do it (although, as any idiot would presume, annexing a land by military force is going to lead to bloodshed). And maybe even suharto did not know how many his army would eventually have to kill to assert control, maybe someone on his team taking East Timor would be a cakewalk and he really believed it... we don't know exactly.

What Ford is responsible for is watching this unfold and then raising no objections to continued military support for Indonesia. so, yes, there is a grave responsibility there. which he shares with every president that came after him, including Carter and Clinton ... and it didn't stop until May 1998, in Clinton's second term.

War crimes tribunals, anyone?

[cali]

3. No thank you Tom.

No, I don't want to see Clinton and Carter tried for war crimes. And thank god I'm in the majority on this and you aren't.

[Selatius]

4. With respect to war crimes tribunals over East Timor, you can read my signature.

It says it all.

[Tom Joad]

6. Yeah, chomsky says it much better.

[Hardrada]

5. Say, what about the situation in Mozambique which

Ford & Kissinger turned into a bloodbath. UNITA or something like that? Has this been forgotten?

[Tom Joad]

7. Kissinger seemed to be the active agent in many things, didn't he..

Pinochet, Vietnam, East Timor, Mozambique. The guilt does not rest with him alone, to be sure, and it was a natural thing for empire to do, but he does have capacity to choose right and wrong doesn't he?

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thanks for making information available to those of us who haven't done our homework on this, yet.

Very much appreciate it. Have bookemarked your thread.