From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,misc.headlines,soc.rights.human,alt.desert-storm
Subject: BOSNIA: U.S. Hypocritic "Concern" over Human Rights
    "There is no binding legal obligation not to recognise acquisition
    of territory that was acquired by force".
Date: 14 Aug 92 06:29:44 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


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Topic 202       Bosnia Double Standard 
ei      media.issues     6:55 pm  Aug 13, 1992 
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     It is ironic to see the United States and its NATO allies 
acting with intense concern over Serbian concentration camps when 
you consider the number of similar camps around the world that have 
received little attention. 

     The following are but a few examples of atrocities committed 
in concentration camps (and many are operated by NATO allies). I 
hope others will post similar examples to strike down the myth that 
the U.S. and its allies are concerned more about people than 
protecting their own corporate oligopolies over the world's 
resources.  Moreover, if the United States is to lead the military 
victory against the world's atrocities, then it can start by going 
to war against itself and the corporate capitalists who prop-up 
immoral regimes like Indonesia and Israel. 

EAST TIMOR 

In what the London Times and the Boston Globe called the 
"concentration camps" of East Timor, innocent people were killed at 
the hands of the Indonesian occupation that continues today.  
According to the Globe, "The scale of their [East Timorese] 
suffering is commensurate with the agony of Cambodians during the 
rule of Pol Pot." (See London Times, April 10, 1991 and Boston 
Globe, December 8, 1990.)  

     In all the hype of how moral the West purports to be regarding 
Bosnia, it should be remembered that the invasion of East Timor by 
Indonesia "was launched hours after President Gerald Ford and 
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger flew out of Jakarta, the 
Indonesian capital, and three months after Kissinger had signaled 
to the Indonesians that the U.S. would not object to an invasion."  
(Boston Globe, December 8, 1990.)  Estimates are that 200,000 East 
Timorese have been killed by the Indonesian occupiers. 

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[3]  "We have taken the view since 1979 that whatever the unhappy
circumstances and indeed, possible illegality, surrounding Indonesia's
acquisition of East Timor in the 1970s, Indonesian sovereignty over
the territory should be accepted not only on a de facto basis but on
a de jure basis. There is no binding legal obligation not to recognise
acquisition of territory that was acquired by force". 

[Foreign Minister, Senator Gareth Evans, Senate Daily Hansard, 1
November 1989]

See "reg.seaais" conference ("newsgroup") on PeaceNet, Feb 21 1991,
"East Timor Briefing Document"

Use GET with EASTIMOR INTRO regarding the genocidal proportions and
oil-profit motives concerning the situation there and U.S./Australian
reactions.

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ISRAEL 

     Although the United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a 
resolution in February 1991 condemning what it called Israel's 
"concentration camps," worldwide news coverage was non-existent.  
Amnesty International recently reported that, in the year following 
the Iraqi war, 80 Palestinians, including children, were shot dead 
by Israeli forces.  The group said some of those killings might 
have been summary executions or appeared to be unjustifiable.  In 
May, 1992, Amnesty reported that 200 detainees have been tortured 
and kept incommunicado for years under Israeli supervision. The 
atrocities include severe beatings, electric shocks and torture of 
relatives.  Nevertheless, Bosnia-style news reports remain scant in 
the U.S. media. 

ALGERIA 

In Algeria, over 7,000 people were forced into five concentration 
camps since the army cancelled the scheduled second round of 
elections in January after a strong showing in the first round by 
the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).  Abdennour Ali Yahia, president 
of the Algerian Human Rights League, condemned what he termed 
"concentration camps" in Algeria. On May 3, 1992, The Independent 
(Great Britain) reported one detainee as saying, "We are kept in 
tents behind three layers of barbed wire in the Sahara desert, 
surrounded by a minefield, armed guards and ferocious dogs. The 
scorching heat and sandstorms make it impossible to breathe. Our 
condition is deteriorating from day to day."  The Independent goes 
on to say that, "One man who made a run for the barbed wire this 
month was shot dead by sentries. Others have tried to break down 
the gates. Hundreds are said to be suffering from dehydration or 
diarrhoea, according to opposition and human rights groups." 

MOROCCO 

According to Inter Press (July 1, 1992), Brahin Saiss of the 
Moroccan Association for the Defence of Human Rights said "830 
political prisoners [in Morocco] are being held and at least 14 
have been sentenced to death. New cases include labor leader Noubir 
Amaoui, sentenced to two years for calling the government a 'band 
of thieves' in a Spanish newspaper. The government has detained not 
only fundamentalists but also leftists, trade unionists and members 
of the Polisario front opposing Moroccan control of the Western 
Sahara since Spain gave up the colony in 1975." 

MAURITANIA 

According to Inter Press (July 1, 1992), "Mauritania has been 
criticized for insufficient efforts to eradicate slavery, outlawed 
in 1980."  "The official line is that slavery is illegal so it 
doesn't exist," said Anne-Marie Sharman of anti-slavery 
international in London. "No steps have been taken to stop the 
centuries old practice," she said.  Amnesty International reported 
that 340 political prisoners were killed in Mauritania from 
November 1990 through March 1991. 

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