A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West1999 saw two major international crises that, looked at side-by-side with characteristic acuity by Noam Chomsky, starkly illuminate the strategies of the Western powers in the new century. In East Timor atrocities mounted sharply, and warnings of further escalation in an unfolding humanitarian disaster could not have been more apparent. It was evident well in advance that the referendum on independence would prompt still more widespread savagery towards the local population by the Indonesian army and their cohorts. As Chomsky points out, the West did not need to do very much to prevent this; a firm word with Jakarta would have sufficed. But East Timor is of little strategic interest to the US and its allies, and so they did nothing. Thousands were killed, hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes. Precise figures are difficult to establish because little has been done by the West to uncover exactly what happened. In this respect, the situation in Kosovo was very different. In Yugoslavia, at. |
Contents
INTENTIONAL IGNORANCE AND ITS USES | 1 |
GREEN LIGHT FOR WAR CRIMES | 48 |
KOSOVO IN RETROSPECT | 94 |
Copyright | |
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action agreement Albanian alleged allies Amnesty International April arms army Asia atrocities attacks August Australian Balkans bombing campaign chapter cited civilians Clinton Administration credibility December Defense Dili diplomatic doctrinal sense documents East Timor escalation ethnic cleansing evidence expulsion February human rights humanitarian intervention independence indictment Indonesian military inquiry intelligence INTERFET invasion Jakarta January June killed Kosovar Kosovo Kosovo war Kurds leaders March 24 MccGwire ment military aid militia million Milosevic Minister Mission monitors months moral murder National NATO November October official enemy Operation Horseshoe OSCE OSCE reports paramilitaries peacekeeping plans police political population Racak Racak massacre Rambouillet record referendum refugees responsibility Roma Sandy Berger Security Council security forces September Serb Serbian Steven Erlanger Suharto terror Timorese tion Tony Blair Turkey UNHCR violence virtually Washington Weller West Timor Western Wiranto withdrawal York Yugoslav Yugoslavia