By Norm Dixon
LONDON — A broad coalition of anti-militarists and East Timor solidarity activists has formed to oppose the sale of British fighter aircraft and other military supplies to the Indonesian government. Will McMahon, a prominent activist in the Coalition For East Timor (CFET) and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), told Green Left Weekly the movement against Indonesia's occupation of East Timor has grown considerably in the past year.
"At the time of the Dili massacre, there was very little going on. There were a few individuals keeping the work going. From 1991 onwards, CFET grew very slowly. But from summer last year it got a lot more organised and decided to carry out some serious projects", McMahon said.
A boost to the campaign was the British government's decision in late 1993 to allow British Aerospace (BAe) to sell 24 Hawk ground attack aircraft, worth Lstg500 million, to the Indonesian government. In January, the number was doubled. The Hawks will begin to be delivered at the rate of two a month from 1996.
"A number of organisations have come to together to campaign against the sale", McMahon said. As well as CFET and CAAT, the coalition, which will be officially launched in October, includes ARROW, a pacifist Christian group from Manchester that uses direct action tactics, the Indonesian human rights campaign (TAPOL), the Fire Brigades Union and Pax Christi.
A 150-strong picket was held outside BAe's shareholders AGM on April 26. Coalition activists inside the AGM distributed an alternative annual report, Writing on the Wall, and caused an uproar when they asked BAe board members questions about the use of Hawks in East Timor. An embarrassed BAe chief executive, Dick Evans, was forced to agree to meet with campaigners.
The campaign against Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor was also boosted when John Pilger's hard-hitting documentary, Death of a Nation, was screened on British television in late February, said McMahon. Pilger was very keen to cooperate with CFET and CAAT.
"CAAT's telephone number was put up on the screen, and we organised all our London contacts to do work around it. There was a huge, spectacular press launch organised by Pilger. He was everywhere, absolutely everywhere. Every newspaper covered the story. He got the campaign on the Channel 4 news, which is Britain's liberal news service. Resources started to flow in quite heavily."
Pilger's documentary included conclusive evidence that Hawk attack aircraft have been used against East Timorese civilians. However, the British government refuses to accept eyewitness accounts from refugees and opposition forces given to Pilger as he filmed secretly in occupied East Timor. It calls for "independent" evidence. It has also recently come to light that another British firm has won a contract to upgrade Indonesia's British-supplied armoured personnel carriers.
While the British government does not recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor, it is prepared to turn a blind eye to continuing atrocities on the island in order to promote economic and political relations with the Suharto dictatorship.
The large oil field in the Timor Gap is being exploited by British oil companies, together with companies from Australia and Indonesia. British government ministers have declared their hope that the UK will become Indonesia's number one trading partner. The Labour Party front bench has not opposed the sale and has accepted Jakarta's assurances that the aircraft will not be used for internal security purposes.
The coalition is organising nationwide activities to commemorate the November 12 Dili massacre. "It is going Europe-wide as well, organised through the European Network Against the Arms Trade. And it is going to be international as well because we assume people in Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Ireland are going to be doing things on that day. It is going to be an international day of action."
In December, "We are launching a year of action, which takes place around the 20th anniversary of the Indonesian invasion in 1975. The aim of that year of action is to build a big coalition. We are in contact with the public service union UNISON, which is Britain's biggest union and has a very good record on international solidarity. They will be discussing it at their international committee in early October. The Fire Brigades Union is supporting it. We've got one leading unionist in the postal workers union doing work around it, and they may boycott Indonesia. We are going to try to get the labour movement and the student movement to sponsor this coalition."
McMahon explained that East Timor activists in Britain were attempting to replicate the success of the East Timor solidarity campaign in Ireland. "They have run a brilliant campaign. Last month over half the MPs in Ireland signed a petition against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor."
The Irish movement has mass support, especially in the labour movement. "We are copying what they have done. We are hoping that six months from now we will have a speaker going to every trade union conference. We will be building a very broad coalition."
Another key objective is to improve contacts with East Timor solidarity and Indonesian democracy movements activists worldwide. At the moment those links are "loose", McMahon said. The British Coalition For East Timor can be contacted c/- 312a Walworth Rd, London SE17 2NA.