01-29-2008, 07:40 AM
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Correspondent
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Melbourne, Australia (currently)
Posts: 349
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Note to self: Must use different thread titles in the future.
I'll just copy what I wrote earlier...
Quote:
Indonesia's former president Suharto, whose legacy of economic development was marred by graft and human rights abuses during his 32 years in power, died on Sunday, aged 86, after suffering multiple organ failure.
Suharto rose to power after he led the military in 1965 against what was officially called an attempted communist coup.
Up to 500,000 people were killed in an anti-communist purge in the months that followed.
Over the next three decades, Suharto's armed forces committed numerous human rights abuses, killing student activists, criminals, and opponents to the regime in the rebellious provinces of Aceh and Papua, as well as in East Timor, which Indonesia invaded in 1975.
http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaC...US120143167919
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Backed by the United States government, President Haji Mohammad Suharto committed some of the worst atrocities known to mankind which would include the invasion (and genocide) in East Timor:
Quote:
The Indonesian invasion of East Timor -- began on December 7, 1975. With Australian encouragement and United States approval, Indonesian forces launched a massive air and sea invasion using almost entirely US manufactured weapons and equipment.
On the day before the invasion, US President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger met with Indonesian president Haji Mohammad Suharto. According to declassified documents released by the National Security Archive (NSA), in December of 2001, they gave a green light for the invasion. In response to Suharto saying "We want your understanding if it was deemed necessary to take rapid or drastic action [in East Timor]." Ford replied, "We will understand and not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indones..._of_East_Timor
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Quote:
Ben Kiernan has written in War, Genocide, and Resistance in East Timor, 1975–99: Comparative Reflections on Cambodia that "the crimes committed... in East Timor, with a toll of 150,000 in a population of 650,000, clearly meet a range of sociological definitions of genocide used by most scholars of the phenomenon, who see both political and ethnic groups as possible victims of genocide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_timor
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You can read more about his infamous legacy here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto |