Sir, - I am accused by Raziaty Tanzil of the Indonesian Embassy (January 20th) of being an "antiIndonesian activist". Never once, since I began working in solidarity with the Timorese and with prodemocracy activists in Indonesia, have I uttered an anti-Indonesian comment. I am a great admirer of Indonesia's struggle to rid itself of European colonisers and wholeheartedly support the present prodemocracy movement there. Raziaty Tanzil's attempt to deflect my trenchant criticism of the Suharto military regime's treatment of the people of East Timor into some sort of racist position with regard to the Indonesian people is something of a low blow. More's the pity that the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) are doing to the East Timorese exactly what the Europeans colonisers did to the Indonesians.
East Timor is not "a wide-open province" with free access to all who wish to visit there, as he stated. Your readers will no doubt recall that two Irish parliamentarians - Patricia McKenna MEP and Senator David Norris - were taken off a flight by Indonesian intelligence officers in Bali some time ago.
Credible organisation such as Amnesty International and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee stand by the figure of 200,000 deaths in East Timor under Indonesian occupation. To settle the matter, would Mr Tanzil's government agree to an independent inquiry under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists?
Three months after the invasion of East Timor, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Adam Malik, admitted to 80,000 deaths in East Timor with the throwaway comment: "What is all the fuss about? It is war." From 1975 until 1989 East Timor was closed to outside visitors. There is extensive testimony to the level of inhuman savagery that was inflicted on the civilian population of East Timor during this period.
If Mr Tanzil's comments are a reflection of the mind-set of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry on East Timor this is a truly depressing news as many had hoped it was serious about reaching an internationally acceptable solution to the East Timor conflict.
In the final analysis, a crime against humanity really is exactly that and no diplomatic obfuscation can overcome this. I am sure that we are now witnessing a new dawn for the people of Indonesia and East Timor. Mr Tanzil and his colleagues should be part of the future and not the past. - Yours, etc.,
East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, Dame Street, Dublin 2.