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Letters to the Editor:

A letter the mainstream press does not want to print

The recent claim by the Institute for Human Rights Study & Advocacy 
(ELS-HAM) group that KOPASSUS was responsible for the ambush at Freeport 
mine in Papua on 31 August 2002 should cause Australian and other world 
leaders to review the assumptions they are making about the so-called war 
on terror.

The KOPASSUS special force of the Indonesian military (TNI) have a long 
history of committing barbaric crimes against humanity in Indonesia, West 
Papua and East Timor.

It is most likely that they carried out this latest terrorist action with 
the assistance of the SATGAS militias, which are recruited, trained and 
armed by the TNI.

In the Moluccas, the TNI has aided and abetted the Laskar Jihad, the 
terrorist militias who have split peaceful communities and killed thousands 
of innocent people — both Christians and Muslims.

It is responsible for crimes against the Achinese. Who can blame them for 
wanting to be independent?

In addition, the TNI has links with Al Quaida.

It is therefore nonsensical thinking by George Bush and John Howard to 
include the TNI as allies in any action that is intended to stop terror.

The TNI is the greatest force for terror in our region. There should be no 
military cooperation with the Indonesian military until all the war 
criminals in its ranks are dealt with by an international war crimes 
tribunal.

The former Australian political and military leaders who are opposing a 
Bush invasion of Iraq should be congratulated. It is a pity that some of 
them did not speak out against the TNI many years ago. If they had, many 
innocent lives may not have been lost.

Andrew (Andy) Alcock
Chairperson, Australia East Timor Friendship 
Association (SA) Inc

Guardian columnist Rob Gowland and I had an uncle Frank Barret, 
who enlisted for the Second World War. The son of a Broken Hill publican, 
Frank had seldom seen water let alone the sea, so the Army made him a 
marine officer. (It's a way they have in the Army!)

As an Army marine officer he had to collect small, powerful wooden ships 
from the yards where they were built in Hobart and sail them all the way to 
northern Queensland. There they hooked up a flotilla of barges loaded with 
stores and drums of fuel, etc, and towed them across to New Guinea to 
supply our troops fighting the Japs.

They were long tows, all night and all day, with only one man on each 
barge. All that poor bloke had was a little cubby to protect him from the 
elements and a kerosene hurricane lamp with which to signal to the towing 
boat every hour.

Both visibility and the weather were often bad, and in the mornings they 
would do a count of the barges and often had to double back to collect 
those that had broken loose in the night.

On one such night of foul weather, First Officer Frank Barret lost his army 
issue binoculars overboard. On his return from New Guinea to Brisbane, he 
copped a notice from the Army to the effect that he had been fined a week's 
pay for "the loss of army goods while not under fire from the enemy".

When Uncle Frank died a few years ago, he left his estate, including his 
house and car, to the Party, a bequest that was greatly appreciated by his 
Comrades.

Larry Gowland
Tasmania

Right or wrong, a strong Opposition keeps the Government honest. Safe 
seats usually get few concessions, while politicians trip over each other 
to make election promises to marginal seats.

In a similar way, communism once served to keep America honest. The world 
was a "marginal seat" then. Now the world is in danger of being controlled 
by a country which is virtually unchallenged.

Sadly, America's reaction to so much power seems to have been an obsession 
with picking off even the smaller nations which could one day represent a 
threat to her total control of the world. It is being done, of course, in 
the name of world peace.

However, absolute power has a tendency to corrupt even the most sincere, 
and so the presence of a few other potential super-powers may not be such a 
bad thing for the rest of us, even if the potentials might be described as 
corrupt or evil.

As an American ex-patriot myself, I believe there is much that is good 
about America. But it still pays to have someone guarding the guards.

Dave McKay
Glendale, NSW