[Nasional-e] Indonesian state terrorism to blame for Bali bombings: Pilger

[Ambon]

The Jakarta Post
Oct. 24, 2002

Indonesian state terrorism to blame for Bali bombings: Pilger

LONDON, UK (JP): Indonesian state terrorism, backed by Britain, America and
Australia, is to blame for the deadly Bali bombings, prominent Australian
journalist John Pilger argued in an essay published Wednesday.
"State terrorism, backed by America, Britain and Australia, has scarred
Indonesia for the past 40 years," Pilger wrote in Britain's left-of-center
Daily Mirror newspaper as quoted by AFP.
He added: "It is hardly surprising there are resentments and tensions (in
Indonesia), and support for extreme religious groups."
Pilger said Britain, America and Australia were guilty of secretly backing
"Indonesian tyrant" General Soeharto's rise to power in the 1960s and of
actively encouraging his government's slaughter of more than half a million
people who were alleged to be communist sympathizers.
He said the source of Indonesia's worst violence was the Army (TNI) "which
the West has supported and armed".
"Today, troops continue to terrorize the provinces of Aceh and West Papua,
where they are 'protecting' the American Exxon oil company's holdings and
the Freeport mine.
"In West Papua, the army openly supports an Islamic group, Laskar Jihad,
which is linked to al-Qaeda. This is the same army which the Australian
government trained for decades and publicly defended when its terrorism
became too blatant," added the award-winning journalist and documentary
filmmaker.
Pilger said Australia's "long complicity with state terrorism in
Indonesia... makes a mockery of the self-deluding declarations last week
that the nation had 'lost its innocence' in Bali."
He hinted that Indonesia's generals could have been behind the Bali
bombings, saying they have "plenty of motives to destabilize the elected
government".
"Democracy has ended important army privileges, including a block of
guaranteed seats in the parliament (Indonesian legislature)," Pilger wrote.
More than 190 people, including an estimated 94 Australians, were killed in
the Oct. 12 bombing of two tourist bars in Bali.
Pilger was among the first reporters to expose the crimes of the Khmer Rouge
(Democratic Kampuchea) regime in Cambodia -- and point the finger at Pol
Pot's western backers -- and in East Timor.


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