The Guardian 22 August, 2007
Editorial
Time for Australia to get out
For more than 25 years the East Timorese people fought for independence from the occupying Indonesian forces. From day one of the Indonesian invasion in 1975 successive Australian Governments gave their support to the illegal and brutal occupation. From that day onward the East Timorese people struggled against that occupation, and during the next 24 years one third of the population, both militant resistance fighters and civilians, lost their lives.
Only when international pressure became so strong and the Indonesians were clearly not winning the war, did the Howard Government turn around and offer assistance to East Timor.
Australia moved in, playing a key role in the setting up of basic infrastructure and other preparations for independence which came in 2002. One of its aims was to secure a permanent base in the country, of strategic importance because of its closeness to Indonesia, Korea and China. Another aim was to be in a position to secure lucrative contracts for East Timor’s oil for Australian, US and other corporations.
The Fretilin party has a strong base amongst its people, earned by its leading role in the independence struggle.The new government of this tiny impoverished but resource rich country was not to the liking of Australian authorities, it refused to give away the resources that belong to its people.
In the recent elections Australia played a huge role in bringing about the removal of the Fretilin from office and installing its own man.
The desecration last weekend by Australian soldiers of the East Timorese flag, under which tens of thousands of independence fighters gave their lives, was nothing short of a provocative, insulting act of colonial arrogance and intimidation towards Fretilin.
At Walili two Australian military vehicles full of soldiers tore up a Fretilin flag which had been raised by the roadside, wiped their backsides with it and drove off with the flag. In Alala village Australian troops tried to sever a Fretilin flag from its rope and then drove over it.
"It would be better for Australian troops to just return home if they cannot be neutral", Fretilin Secretary-General Mari Alkatiri said.
Return home they should.
An international disgrace
An investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald published last week on federal spending on Indigenous affairs further debunks the stated reasons for the Howard Government’s "intervention" in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. It turns out that creative accounting has played a big part in the Indigenous budget.
The Government spent almost $110 million less than it said it did in 30 different areas in the Indigenous budget. This included a $25 million shortfall in health services, $2 million in child care services and $37 million on Abstudy for tertiary students.
As a statement by the Australian Education Union said, "Children in these targeted communities [in the NT] have the right to access high quality education in their home communities, yet the funding attached to the Federal Government’s intervention will not provide additional resources for much needed school and early childhood infrastructure, the extra teachers necessary and the additional teacher housing which will be needed to accommodate them."
In the 2005-06 financial year the Government allocated $181.75 million to schooling for Indigenous children but did not spend it: instead it moved the money into the following year’s budget. A large proportion of the hundreds of millions of dollars the Government claims to have spent on Indigenous affairs has been used to fight against Aboriginal native title claims.
The revelations follow a growing public disquiet and opposition to the Government’s land grab in the Northern Territory. The deliberate cutting of funds to fundamental needs in Indigenous communities in such areas as health and education that non-indigenous Australians take for granted is a reflection of the Government’s objectives of assimilation and genocide.
The rates of HIV and diabetes alone in Indigenous communities are at epidemic proportions, again a reflection of the agenda Howard has been running with for the 11 years he has been in office.
The Howard Government has brought Australia into the international spotlight as it violated one international agreement on human rights after another, including the basic right to organise in a union. It has brought disgrace and shame on the nation with its racist contempt for Australia’s original owners.