Death of Indonesian butcher Suharto
By Harry Glass
The former Indonesian dictator Suharto died on 27 January, without facing justice for the millions he killed or the wealth he appropriated during his 33 years in power.
Suharto came to power in 1965, when he led a military coup to overthrow the nationalist Sukarno government. His first act was to physically exterminate the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), having at least half a million of its members and supporters killed. His forces and Islamic militias eventually murdered perhaps two million opponents.
Suharto made Indonesia safe for capitalism and western corporations. As Richard Nixon put it, Suharto offered up “the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in south-east Asia.” According to John Pilger, Suharto’s “US-trained economists … agreed to the corporate takeover of their country, sector by sector. The Freeport company got a mountain of copper in West Papua. A US/European consortium got the nickel. The giant Alcoa company got the biggest slice of Indonesia’s bauxite. American, Japanese and French companies got the tropical forests of Sumatra.” (Guardian 28 January 2008)
Indonesia developed industrially, while basic democratic freedoms were abrogated and any signs of dissent viciously stamped on. In 1975 Suharto invaded and then annexed East Timor with the full backing of western governments. A recent Australian government inquiry found that 200,000 people — around one third of the population — died in East Timor as a result of the Indonesian occupation.
Suharto’s grip on power weakened in the 1990s. A mass democracy movement of students and workers forced Suharto from power in 1998, but he never faced trial for his crimes. The Indonesian left still lives the shadow of his legacy. Socialists should cheer his passing and help those like Dita Sari – herself imprisoned and tortured under Suharto – to rebuild the labour movement.
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Indonesian Colonization of other nations
The Ford Foundation in 1949 already had Sumitro telling Corporate America that Indonesia would provide "free access" to Indonesian resources and "sufficient incentives" for foreign corporate investment; while Soedjatmoko expanded that offer to "the availability of the resources of Asia," in "fruitful cooperation with the West."
The poor victims of West Papua were betrayed in 1935 when Shell allowed Mobil & Chevron too buy 60% of NNGPM which was exploring West Papua for its mineral wealth, in 1936 Jean Dozy reported his discovery the of world's richest gold & copper centrations at what he called Ertsberg.
In March 1959 the New York Times reported the Papuan Mines Office was looking for the mountain source of alluvial gold they found in the Arafura Sea, in August 1959 the Rockefeller's infamous Freeport Sulphur company was trying to establish its claim to Ertsberg before the Dutch found out its worth.
Then in 1960 Freeport Sulphur director Robert Lovett loaded the government of John F Kennedy with advisers, most importantly fellow member of the Order of Skull & Bones Mr McGeorge Bundy who finally convinced Kennedy that America had to force the Netherlands & United Nations to sign the "New York Agreement" trading the Colony of West New Guinea so that America could be saved from communism.
That's why there are terrorist groups like Laskar Jihad in West Papua today. Because the Rockefellers and America wanted the world's biggest gold mine.