Sunday, May 31, 2015

SECRET DOCUMENTS IN EAST TIMOR TRAGEDY COME TO LIGHT

Because of  his long  involvement in the East Timor struggle ,  Darwin agronomist Rob Wesley-Smith continues  to  build a  massive  dossier on  the   way  the West  turned a blind eye on  the invasion of  the   former Portuguese  colony  by  Indonesia  in 1975  and the  ruthless  oppression and slaughter of many of its  people.
 

The latest documents include  1983  secret communications from the Australian Consulate in Bali  to the Australian Embassy, Jakarta , forwarded to Foreign Affairs, Canberra. Discussed  is American help in fitting napalm  tanks to planes for  presumed  use  in East Timor and  the suicide or murder of  a  US citizen.


Another subject of interest  is the suggestion that there had been a  plot to either  kidnap  or   harm  the  American Ambassador to Indonesia,  John  Herbert  Holdridge. In 1971  Holdridge accompanied US Secretary of  State Henry Kissinger on the secret trip to mainland China that opened the way for President  Richard Nixon to visit in 1972, which impacted in the Australian election,  resulting in the Whitlam government coming into  office.    


 
Wesley-Smith pulls no punches when he tells how US President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger  gave the  green light for Indonesia  to  invade East Timor.  He is  just as critical of  Australia's part in  the  affair . Another point he makes about  the communiques is that they reveal an Italian involvement as the napalm  tanks  were  made in  that  country.