By Max Lane
Between November 14 and 16, thousands of East Timorese youth demonstrated at the University of East Timor and outside the governor's office in Dili in solidarity with Bishop Belo.
Belo has come under verbal attack from the Indonesian Armed Forces, with General Amir Syarifudin calling on the parliament to summon Belo to hold him to account. The dictatorship's ire was inflamed by an interview Belo gave to the German magazine Der Spiegel in which he allegedly said that the Indonesian army has treated East Timorese like "scabby dogs".
Interestingly, the rallies in Dili were not dispersed by the military.
The events of June and July in Indonesia were a severe blow to the Suharto regime. For the first time in two decades, the organised democratic forces, including a section of the officially recognised Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), pursued a policy of extra-parliamentary mass action. Since July 27, and despite shoot to kill orders, thousands have rallied again on at least two occasions — outside court cases where Megawati Sukarnoputri was attending and at the opening of provincial PDI offices. These rallies have not been harassed either.
The militant shows of opposition also provoked a revolt by the dictatorship's National Human Rights Commission, which publicly blamed the government for the July 27 rioting. Then followed the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos Horta, also a major propaganda blow to the Suharto dictatorship.
His receipt of the prize has opened more doors for Ramos Horta to put his case for East Timor freedom. It also relaunched the issue in the media, making it more difficult for the dictatorship to act against the pro-Belo protesters in East Timor.
Despite these developments, the US and some western European governments (such as Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom), still sell arms to Indonesia.
In Australia, both major parties continue support for the Suharto dictatorship. As Ramos Horta said in a recent interview with Green Left Weekly, a key goal for the solidarity movement in Australia today is to force a reversal of de jure recognition of Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor. Connected to this is also the need to force the government to cut military ties with Suharto.
Campaigning in Australia needs to take advantage of recent advances: the steps forward by the anti-dictatorship movement in Indonesia and the increased profile for East Timor that flows from the Nobel Prize win. This year's Dili massacre commemoration mobilisations show that the potential for a stronger campaign is still there.
Spirited rallies took place in most cities. A new development was the inclusion of trade union officials on speaking platforms — Stan Sharkey, co-president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, in Sydney, and Leigh Hubbard from the Trades and Labour Council in Melbourne.
The mobilisations were smaller this year, overshadowed by the heightened profile of domestic issues. On November 12, 600 people rallied in Melbourne, 300 in Perth and 150 in Adelaide, with smaller actions in other cities. The drop in rally size from last year was smallest in Sydney where, building on the successful August 25 mobilisation, at least 1000 people marched from St Mary's Cathedral and hundreds rallied at Sydney Town Hall Square on November 9.