Cook's tour of death

Only three months after it ended the war in the Balkans with ringing declarations of its humanity and decency, the pretensions of the British government's 'ethical foreign policy' have been demolished. The army of Indonesia, trained and armed by Britain, has rampaged over the people of East Timor and backed the murderous militias.

What has been the response of our leaders? Reluctantly, the government agreed to suspend arms sales to Indonesia... for four months. Meanwhile the Tory policy of supplying Hawk aircraft has continued. Three planes are in Thailand awaiting delivery to Indonesia, where they have recently been used to intimidate the population in East Timor.

Those who see comparisons with the situation in Kosovo may be surprised at the disparity between the west's intervention there--bombing Serb civilians for weeks--and its accommodating attitude to the Indonesian government. A UN force only went in with the agreement of Indonesia and is headed by Australia, the regional superpower which has never backed independence for East Timor.

These double standards were pointed out by many of those who opposed Nato's Balkan War. Western intervention is not guided by humanitarian concerns. The tragedy of East Timor is on at least as great a scale as that of Kosovo. The west is guided purely by its own interests in these matters--which dictate that Indonesia is kept onside. Its powerful army and the regime which maintains it have been feted and supported by the western powers to serve their political and economic interests.

Western intervention is not aimed at solving particular problems but at preventing them from causing major conflicts, which can create regional instability and therefore damage the ability of capitalists to make money and profits. That is why for years the western powers were happy to deal with Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia. It was only when they came into conflict with the west that they were demonised and attacked. It is why for years the Indonesian dictator Suharto was designated the west's friend despite his appalling civil rights record. It is why today the 'peacekeepers' in Kosovo have done little to protect the Serbs and Roma Gypsies who are being hounded and killed by ethnic Albanians.

The role of Tony Blair's government has been central in the framing of this new world order. His ennobled defence secretary, George Robertson, is off to head Nato. Robin Cook, the increasingly despised foreign secretary, is cynically prepared to back Indonesia's government while pretending that he has been fighting within the government to stop arms sales. Both these ministers, and Blair himself, are former members of CND who now find themselves promoting sales of deadly weaponry and armed intervention in parts of the world. Public funds in Britain have been used to train soldiers in countries like Indonesia and to underwrite arms exports.

At the same time that the government poses on the world stage, it denies the most basic improvements in the lives of ordinary people. Despite predicted budget surpluses, there is no extra money for schools, hospitals or pensions. The same government which sells weapons to dictators abroad refuses to tackle poverty and unemployment. These priorities exist among governments worldwide--which is why we should show solidarity with those, like the East Timorese and the Indonesian mass protests, who challenge them.
See our special feature page 15 onwards