The East Timor Action Network/Seattle today announced plans to mark the 21st anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor on Saturday, December 7 with street theater and puppets at Westlake Mall. The international spotlight will return to East Timor on Tuesday, December 10, when Nobel Peace Prizes will be awarded in Oslo to two East Timorese men, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta for their work to seek a just resolution to the on-going conflict in East Timor. The performance will begin at 12 noon on Saturday at Westlake Mall.
The group, including students from Seattle's Nova High School, have assembled large puppets of U.S. Presidents and Indonesian President Suharto. Using the puppets, they will enact the transfer of more than a $1 billion in arms sales from the U.S. to Indonesia during the period when its armed forces, with U.S. backing, invaded East Timor and presided over the deaths of 200,000 East Timorese, or one-third of the population. "Relative to the population, the killings in East Timor rank among the worst genocides of the 20th century, and this was accomplished with weapons supplied almost totally by the United States," remarked Joe Szwaja, co-ordinator of ETAN/Seattle.
The group's goal is to remind shoppers that the occupation of East Timor, illegal under international law and condemned by the U.N., has not only been ignored by successive U.S. Presidents since President Ford gave the green light for the invasion to President Suharto in 1975, but that successive U.S. administrations have actively aided and abetted the genocide. "We hope that after seeing the enactment, shoppers will think twice about whether the products they buy which are made in Indonesia, such as Nike shoes, help further the ties to the Indonesian military dictatorship which make possible not only the killings in East Timor, but domestic repression of dissent and military involvement in labor disputes within Indonesia."
To this end, ETAN plans to circulate "Indonesia Dollars" to shoppers which "buy access" to the White House and Presidential Silence on East Timor. The group, carrying the presidential puppets, blown-up Indonesia Dollars, and mock M-16 rifles, will march from Westlake Mall to Nike Town to emphasize that shoppers vote on continued oppression in Indonesia and East Timor every time they buy Nike shoes. "We hope that when the Nobel Peace Prizes are awarded to Belo and Ramos-Horta this Tuesday, people in Washington State will stop to think why they have heard so little about East Timor, a place which seems so far away, but is actually very close to home," said Frank Zucker, an ETAN activist.
Washington State Senator Patty Murray was one of 15 U.S. senators who signed a letter to President Clinton urging him to raise the question of self-determination for East Timor with Suharto during the APEC conference in Manila. Ironically, despite his party's questions regarding East Timor and the Clinton administration during the Dole presidential bid, Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) refused to sign. Clinton did not raise the issue.
Contact: Joe Szwaja, 633-2836