9ICRS and East Timor

Russell Kelley h2omark at ultra.net.au
Fri Sep 17 21:58:24 EDT 1999


Distressing as it is, I feel it is time for the international community to
turn up the heat on Indonesia.  The military continue to manipulate all
things political and after 3 decades of detante and engangement by Australia
et.al. there have been NO meaningful  change.  People who are disturbed by
the events  currently being orchestrated by the Indonesian military in East
Timor might also want to have a good look at the Suharto military
government's record in West Irian and other areas as well.

Since Suharto's bloody rise to power the natural and human resources of the
Indonesian archipelago have been systematically looted for the gain of a
small clique of power brokers and their cronies.  The forests are now
largely stuffed and the reefs are enduring extreme human impacts that are
not likely to diminish.

Given the parlous state of the Indonesian economy and the population
pressure exerted by 210 million people, things are unlikely to get better.
The upcoming appointment of a succesor to Habibie is the only hope for a
change to the current military puppet government and its brutal, corrupt
culture.  Now is the the time for united strident criticism and pressure for
change.  Decades of  turning a blind eye has failed to change anything and
in the process we lost the biological crown jewels of Nature.

Numerous comments on Coral and other lists,  indicate that there is
widespread disenchantment about these issues within Indonesia.  These people
have a voice which can be democratically expressed, but the current
military government seeks to repress this by murder if necessary; its
unacceptable to have dialogue with a "government" that does this. How long
will it take to before we act collectively and say so?


Russell Kelley
Watermark Productions
Writer, director, producer, science communicator.
P.O. Box 1859, Townsville, 4810.
Australia
hemail: h2omark at ultra.net.au
61 (0)747 243106 ph.
61 (0)747 211477 fx.
61 (0)419 716730 mob.
GMT + 10 hours

----------
>From: "Ove Hoegh-Guldberg" <oveh at bio.usyd.edu.au>
>To: "Joel C. Creed" <jcreed at openlink.com.br>, <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
>Subject: RE: 9ICRS and East Timor
>Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 3:28 PM
>

>coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov




More information about the Coral-list-old mailing list