On Friday, 17 September 1999 17:00:00 UTC+10, David Bofinger wrote:

Personal opinions and questions: mostly addressed to the Indonesians
I've seen posting hate messages against Australia.

--

The Indonesian reaction against Australia seems very strong. Australia
finds itself elevated to the role of a principal villain: a bizarre and unaccustomed role for a country of so limited influence in world affairs.

Can someone explain to me what actions on the part of Australia led to
this reaction? It seems to me that all the potentially objectionable
actions were taken by someone else:

WHAT WHO

Long-term resistance Fretilin/Falintil
Decision to hold vote in East Timor Habibie
Vote approves independence East Timorese/Fretilin
Militia armed TNI
Threat: IMF cutoff USA
Military aid cutoff USA
Peacekeepers invited in Habibie/Wiranto?

All Australia has done, that I can see, is:

1. Try to persuade Indonesian leaders to stop the bloodshed in ET.

2. Say, when it continued, that peacekeepers should be allowed in.

Indonesians might disagree with Australia's opinions here, but if the government did then they could have ignored Australia's opinions: they weren't backed up by threats, after all. (If you do feel that Australia
has made threats, could you explain what they were?)

3. Participate in the peacekeeping, after receiving an invitation from
the Indonesian government.

OK, nobody expects the Indonesians to like seeing foreign troops on
soil they regard as Indonesian. But the request was issued by the
Indonesian government and if it weren't Australian troops it would
have to be someone else's (or if Indonesia wanted nobody's troops ...
well, Australia wasn't going to do anything about it). In any case,
why hate Australia, and not the other participating countries?

Many posters have accused Australia of wanting to invade Indonesia, by
going to war with it. The Australian government has, however, said
nothing suggesting they intended to do this. In any case, Indonesia's
army is about fifteen (?) times as large as Australia's, making an
invasion impractical to say the least.

So why the hatred?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
David Bofinger David.Bofinger@dsto.defence.gov.au ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Fuck Asians, they are cunts. Animal cruelty, eating fucked up shit, and fucking anything they see (which is nothing)

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