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NEWS & LETTERS, February-March 2006

Muki Bonaparte remembered

"The ideology of a system in which women are considered as 'inferior beings' has submitted Timorese women to a double exploitation: A general form, which applies without distinction to both men and women, and which manifests itself by forced labor, starvation salaries, racism, etc....Another form of a specific character, directed to women in particular." This voice of freedom fighter Rosa Muki Bonaparte was one of hundreds of thousands stilled by the genocide committed against East Timor by the Indonesian government with full U.S. support.

After 30 years, the truth is coming out as 1,000 formerly classified U.S. documents have been released on the 30th anniversary of East Timor's Nov. 28, 1975 declaration of independence. Presidents Ford, Carter, and George Bush tried to bury the information because, as the director of the National Security Archive's Indonesia and East Timor Documentation Project stated: "We expect...to demonstrate, as these documents do, that Indonesia's invasion and occupation of East Timor, and the resulting crimes against humanity occurred in an international context in which the support of powerful nations, especially the U.S., was indispensable."

As Acheh struggles to recover from the tsunami that devastated the land, Rosa Muki Bonaparte's struggle continues there against the Indonesian government, which, again with a U.S. stamp of approval, persists in murdering those struggling for freedom.

--TM

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