Lombok — Australia agrees to assist sadists and criminals [by Andrew Phillips]

By Andrew Phillips, 2nd April 2007

The signing of the so called “Lombok Treaty” with Indonesia several months ago has received little coverage — and it should come as no surprise.

Those entrusted with our national security revived the treasonous agreement made by that self-confessed hater of our nation, Paul Keating (readers surely remember his claim that Australia was “the arsehole of the world” — a fine declaration by one claiming to defend our best interests). Having once again bound our nation to a corrupt, brutal and racist regime with little regard for their neighbours (particularly those to the South), our spineless parliamentarians slinked off back to their respective holes.

Australian taxpayers fork out an annual $344 million in aid to Indonesia. This figure has ballooned to $2.95 billion promised over several years with a pledge by Howard to boost it to $4 BILLION by 2010.

In the age of the so called “threat of international terrorism”, some might ask “what is the problem with aiding our northern neighbour?”

Putting the fact our own nation has a heavy national debt aside, our nation is in need of infrastructure upgrades, environmental improvements, health system/ education funding and is bearing the severe impacts of the drought.

The Lombok Agreement is a stain upon our nation’s reputation and dishonours the members of our country’s armed services by linking them with the TNI ( Indonesia’s military and their associated “special units”). TNI have been constantly involved in Indonesia’s internal affairs at every level since independence and continue to be so — despite the charade of democracy.

The list of achievements made by our militaristic northern neighbours is not exactly glorious. As early as 1965 the military was used to kill hundreds of thousands of members of the Indonesian Communist Party as well as associated groups including women’s organisations and unions. Reports indicate groups of Moslem youths, under protection of the Indonesian military, beheaded suspected political opponents, placing the heads on bamboo poles and parading them through streets while dumping the decapitated bodies in the middle of streets.

The invasion of East Timor in 1975 which involved the butchering of 2 U.K. journalists and 3 Australian/ New Zealander journalists working for the Australian media (Balibo Five) began a 24 year reign of terror over the hapless local population, one in which the world showed little interest. The occupation of East Timor by the TNI and their special units resulted in the slaughter of 200,000 people.

The territorial ambitions displayed by the Javanese racists know no boundaries. They have no qualms about subjecting their racially different neighbours to their reign of brutality — there is no respect for the Christians of East Timor or West Papua, their territory, their customs, their identity. What makes the international community think those of us in Australia are any different in their eyes?

Oil-rich Aceh has also suffered at the hands of these brutes. Through aerial bombardment and military raids, thousands have been killed and more displaced. Indonesia must be most gratified the Lombok Treaty dictates Australia will not become involved in their internal affairs — it saves them from having to publicly throw their weight around as they have in the past, particularly with Aceh. At the start of the TNI campaign against Aceh’s attempts at independence, Indonesia warned Malaysia against allowing asylum seekers from Aceh entering sovereign Malaysian territory, despite the fact many had relations living on the Malaysian side. This action resulted in Malaysia closing it’s borders. Likewise, Vanuatu was reported to have issued a denial it had allowed the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to open an office in it’s territory.

How do our new “partners in security” handle their internal relationships? The lists of methods seem to go on as long as the Javanese Occupied Archipelago itself, but here’s a sample.

Aceh — TNI soldiers handcuffed a local man’s ankles and swung him repeatedly against a tree, causing massive head injuries and not stopping until he was dead.

West Papua, women and children were surrounded by troops while praying in a forest and gunned down.

Troops were involved in an “incident” which involved opening fire on parishioners on their way to church on Christmas Day.

For the “crime” of raising an OPM flag, TNI troops are reported as beating detainees with rods, stabbing them in the limbs with bayonets and hit in the head with rocks repeatedly.

Rape is often used by our new partners as a method of torture and intimidation. Are these really the sort of people we want alongside our servicemen and women?

The claim has been made that the Lombok Treaty will result in the collective security of both nations in this age of global terrorism, unfortunately, the Indonesian military don’t seem to mind having a bob each way provided it serves to strengthen their position.

Indonesian military agency, OPSUS aided the formation of Komando Jihad, an organisation with the stated aim of establishing an Islamic State. This was the same organisation that engaged in the highjacking of a Garuda flight in Thailand in 1981 — Jema’ah Islamiyah apparently had it’s origins in these events.

Laskar Jihad in West Papua has continued it’s campaign of terror against the racially and religiously different Papuans with strong support from the TNI, police and Kopassus (Indonesian Special Forces).

Corruption is rampant amongst our new partners. The TNI have interests in much of Papua’s “resource extraction” projects and aim to do all they can to protect these interests. As recently as last February (12/2/2007), TNI were involved in a gunfight with Indonesian police to protect their drug and prostitution interests — a fight leaving one policeman dead (International Herald Tribune, 13/2/2007).

Cosgrove made the point that the Indonesians were impressed by the performance of our forces during their service with the InterFET operations in East Timor. Quite rightly so, it was indeed an admirable effort. Unfortunately, the whole exercise was also a fine example of the duplicity of our new partners. InterFET troop landing operations were shadowed by Indonesian T-209 submarines. Hunted then detected by Western Forces, reports indicate their locations were sent to Indonesian strategists (indicating an imminent counter-attack?) who promptly removed the vessels from the area of operation.

The article above is just a short summary of the character of our new partners. They are clearly an expansionist, brutal and corrupt power. Our nation’s “leaders” have no right to sign any form of agreement with these murderous thugs, much less throw $4 Billion of Australian Taxpayers funds at them to help perpetuate their totalitarian campaigns.

Australians must say a clear and resounding “NO!” to any attempts by our parliamentarians to tie us or our nation’s servicemen to these animals. Such a partnership is akin to knowingly leaping into a bed full of Taipans, and expecting to wake up the morning after……..

No to aid for Indonesia, No training of Indonesian troops on Australian soil, No to the Treaty.

Protect the National Interest.

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