November, 09 2010, 10:06am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
U.S. and Murderous Military in Indonesia
WASHINGTON
ALLAN NAIRN
Currently in Indonesia, Nairn is available for a limited number of
interviews with major media outlets. He just wrote the piece "Breaking
News: Secret Files Show Kopassus, Indonesia's Special Forces, Targets
Papuan Churches, Civilians. Documents Leak from Notorious U.S.-Backed
Unit as Obama Lands in Indonesia."
The piece states: "Secret documents have leaked from inside
Kopassus, Indonesia's red berets, which say that Indonesia's U.S.-backed
security forces engage in 'murder [and] abduction' and show that
Kopassus targets churches in West Papua and defines civilian dissidents
as the 'enemy.'
"The documents include a Kopassus enemies list headed by Papua's top
Baptist minister and describe a covert network of surveillance,
infiltration and disruption of Papuan institutions. ...
"When the U.S. restored Kopassus aid last July the rationale was
fighting terrorism, but the documents show that Kopassus in fact
systematically targets civilians."
See IPA release of March 24, 2010: "Exposing U.S.-backed Indonesian Military Assassinations Leads to Arrest Threats and Censorship for Journalist"
JOHN M. MILLER
National coordinator for the East Timor & Indonesia Action Network,
Miller said today: "We urge President Obama to use the opportunity of
his visit to decisively break with past U.S. support for torture,
disappearances, rape, invasion and illegal occupation, extrajudicial
murder, environmental devastation and more. U.S. weapons, training,
political backing and economic support of Indonesia facilitated these
crimes."
Nairn and Miller appeared on the program Democracy Now this morning.
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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