Human rights, sovereignty, and the East Timor "question"

Global Society

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 101-126

  Nair, Sheila ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GEOPOLITICS; HUMAN RIGHTS; SOVEREIGNTY;

EAST TIMOR;

EID: 0034018415     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820050001149     Document Type: Article

References (115)

1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Studies Association Meeting in Washington, DC in February 1999. While I alone am responsible for any shortcomings in this article, I would like to thank the following individuals: Shampa Biswas and Geeta Chowdhry for very helpful comments on the ISA paper; Sumit Mandal, whose comments on East Timor and Indonesia were invaluable; the anonymous reviewers and Jarrod Wiener for constructive feedback; and Jessica LeAnn Urban for research assistance.
2. Kathryn Sikkink, "Transnational Politics, International Relations Theory, and Human Rights", PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 31, No. 3 (1998), p. 519.
3. See, for example, Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights, 2nd edn (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998), p. 15;
4. Sikkink, International Human Rights, 2nd edn op. cit.
5. David P. Forsythe, "Human Rights Fifty Years after the Universal Declaration", PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 31, No. 3 (1998), p. 507.
6. Sikkink, PS: Political Science and Politics, op. cit., p. 517.
7. Evidence of the heightened interest and scholarship include R.J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); and
8. Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989) .
9. Donnelly, International Relations and Human Rights, op. cit., pp. 11-17.
10. See also Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998) for an elaboration of the network concept.
11. Sikkink, "Transnational Politics", Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics op. cit., p. 520. She suggests that "transnational norms entrepreneurs, organized in advocacy networks, have successfully used graphic images of bodily harm as a means of mobilizing transnational campaigns against human rights violations in particular countries".
12. See also Keck and Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics op. cit., for an expanded analysis.
13. In addition to Keck and Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics op. cit.,
14. see Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996); and
15. Martha Finnemore, National Interests in International Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996) for an elaboration of the norms argument.
16. For a more philosophically grounded set of arguments concerning the normative bases of international relations theory see Chris Brown, International Relations Theory: New Normative Approaches (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).
17. For an examination of competing perspectives on ethics and international relations which address among other questions the discourse on rights, see Terry Nardin and David R. Mapel (eds.), Traditions of International Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
18. Keck and Sikkink, Traditions of International Ethics ( op. cit., pp. 79-89.
19. Traditions of International Ethics ( Ibid., pp. 10-38, 116-120.
20. Forsythe, Traditions of International Ethics ( op. cit., p. 509.
21. Keck and Sikkink, Traditions of International Ethics ( op. cit., p. 215.
22. Jackie Smith, Ron Pagnucco and George A. Lopez, "Globalizing Human Rights: The Work of Transnational Human Rights NGOs in the 1990s", Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1998), pp. 379-412. Smith et al. conclude from results of an international survey mailed to nearly 300 transnational organisations of which 30% were from the South, that there were several differences in the goals and areas of activity between Northern and Southern NGOs responding to the survey. For example, Southern NGOs were more likely than Northern ones to list "among their primary goals the advancement of new human rights standards, strengthening citizens' organizing capacities, and transforming national institutions" (p. 388). They also found that the "most substantial difference in responses between Northern and Southern NGOs was that Southern NGOs were significantly more likely to report that they frequently worked to promote the right to development and to promote social, economic, and cultural rights" (p. 390). This survey provides the statistical evidence for the argument that an ideological or philosophical difference in attitude and position exists between the human rights organisations in the North and in the South. Third World activists and organisations have expressed this difference in the stance adopted by many Southern NGO coalitions at the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and in other arenas.
23. Jackie Smith, Ron Pagnucco and George A. Lopez, " Human Rights Quarterly, Ibid., pp. 387-406.
24. The "movements" concept as used here refers to organised campaigning on various issues around which human rights groups may converge. Participants in movements may include inter-governmental organisations like the UN Commission on Human Rights, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, regionally based forums like the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET), and nationally based NGOs like the JUST World Trust in Malaysia.
25. Forsythe, Human Rights Quarterly, op. cit., p. 508.
26. See, for example, Vincent, Human Rights Quarterly, op. cit.
27. For an ethnographic study justifying the claim "that certain human 'rights' are universally perceived and experienced" see W. Penn Handwerker, "Universal Human Rights and the Problem of Unbounded Cultural Meanings", American Anthropologist, Vol. 99, No. 4 (1997), pp. 799-809.
28. Elene Mountis, "Cultural Relativity and Universalism: Reevaluating Gender Rights in a Multicultural Context", Dickinson Journal of International Law, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1996), pp. 113-114.
29. Anthony Woodiwiss, Globalisation, Human Rights and Labour Law in Pacific Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 1.
30. Anthony Woodiwiss, Globalisation, Human Rights and Labour Law in Pacific Asia ( Ibid., p. 1.
31. Weber, in Globalisation, Human Rights and Labour Law in Pacific Asia ( ibid., p. 2.
32. Woodiwiss, Globalisation, Human Rights and Labour Law in Pacific Asia ( ibid., p. 2.
33. Woodiwiss, Globalisation, Human Rights and Labour Law in Pacific Asia ( Ibid., p. 7.
34. Michael J. Perry, "Are Human Rights Universal? The Relativist Challenge and Related Matters," Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3 (1997), p. 466. The question of the "sacredness" of the human is embedded in human rights law, according to Perry, which also poses a dilemma for those who argue from a secular position.
35. Michael J. Perry, " Human Rights Quarterly, Ibid., pp. 462, 466-471.
36. Quoted in Michael J. Perry, " Human Rights Quarterly, ibid., p. 464.
37. In the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
38. Joseph Slaughter, "A Question of Narration: The Voice in International Human Rights Law", Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1997), pp. 406-430.
39. Joseph Slaughter, " Human Rights Quarterly, Ibid., pp. 406-407.
40. Joseph Slaughter, " Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. Ibid., p. 406.
41. Quoted in Slaughter, Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. ibid., p. 411.
42. Slaughter, Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. Ibid., p. 412.
43. Slaughter, Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. Ibid., p. 407.
44. Slaughter, Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. Ibid., p. 413.
45. Slaughter, Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. Ibid., p. 430.
46. Slaughter, Human Rights Quarterly, , pp. Ibid., p. 428.
47. The psychological impact on the colonised is explored in a trenchant critique of colonial rule by Frantz Fanon, in Charles L. Markmann (trans.), Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967).
48. Slaughter, Black Skin, White Masks op. cit., p. 430.
49. Secret cable from UNAMIR to the UN secretariat mentioned in the transcript of the documentary, Frontline: Triumph of Evil, 〈http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/etc/ script.html〉.
50. Frontline: Triumph of Evil, 〈 Ibid.
51. Frontline: Triumph of Evil, 〈 Ibid.
52. Frontline: Triumph of Evil, 〈 Ibid.
53. Frontline: Triumph of Evil, 〈 Ibid.
54. Xanana Gusmao, "Preface", in Sharon Sharfe, Complicity: Human Rights and Canadian Foreign Policy: The Case of East Timor (Montreal, London, New York: Black Rose Books, 1996), p. xii.
55. According to recent figures (given for three-year periods) from the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and published by the East Timor Action Network (ETAN), between 1992 and 1994, Indonesia received weapons deliveries worth nearly $170m from the United States and Germany alone, and between 1993 and 1995 nearly $300m from several different sources. The latter figure includes $70m from the United States, $100m from the United Kingdom, $110m from Germany, $10m from other Nato countries, and $10m from the Middle East and East Asia. In 1996 US military sales alone amounted to about $11m while direct commercial sales (DCS) totalled $212m. See ETAN, "International Appeal to End Military Support for Indonesia", 〈http://www.etan.org/eta/armssale.htm〉.
56. Noam Chomsky, "Why Americans Should Care About East Timor", 〈http:// www. motherjones.com/easttimor/comment/chomsky.html〉.
57. For an analysis of the World Bank's role in Indonesian development and its human rights implications see "A Joint Report of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM)", In the Name of Development: Human Rights and the World Bank in Indonesia (July 1995).
58. Charles Scheiner, "The United States: From Complicity to Ambiguity", East Timor Crisis: The Struggle for Independence from Indonesia (forthcoming, London, I.B. Tauris).
59. East Timor Action Network, Background on US East Timor and US Policy (October 1998), 〈http://www.etan.org/timor/BkgMnu.htm〉.
60. Eric Black, "East Timor: An Inconsistent Case of US Policy", Minneapolis Star Tribune (6 June 1999), 〈http://www.etan.org/et99/june/6-12/6easttim.htm〉.
61. Eric Black, " Minneapolis Star Tribune ( Ibid.
62. Eric Black, " Minneapolis Star Tribune ( Ibid.
63. Lisa Lowe and David Lloyd (eds.), The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), p. 7.
64. Lisa Lowe and David Lloyd (eds.), The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital ( Ibid., p. 7.
65. Derek Sayer, Capitalism and Modernity (London/New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 56.
66. Lowe and Lloyd, Capitalism and Modernity ( op. cit., p. 7.
67. In Leela Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), p. 6.
68. Gyan Prakash (ed.), After Colonialism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 9.
69. "Indonesia Talks of Leaving Timor, and Both Sides are Nervous," The New York Times (3 February 1999).
70. Varied news and eyewitness accounts, and human rights observers have pointed to the role played by the Indonesian Special Forces, KOPASSUS, which has been the recipient of US military assistance and training through the JCET, in the violence which followed the referendum. For example, see interview with Jose Ramos Horta, Online News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Transcript (8 September 1999), posted at 〈org/plweb-cgi/fastweb?getdoc+ newshour+ newshour+ 1334+ 0+ wAAA+ jose% 26ramos%26horta〉. Although buried in the middle of her report, Barbara Crossette notes that "the powerful Indonesian military appears bent on leaving behind a broken land".
71. See Crossette, "Intervention in East Timor is Gathering Backers at the UN", The New York Times (7 September 1999). In addition, throughout the month of September, human rights observers and groups, including the East Timor Action (ETAN) network in the United States, drew attention to the involvement of the military, and ETAN urged members of the US public to lobby the US Congress to cut off all forms of military assistance to Indonesia.
72. See Ramos Horta, The New York Times ( op. cit.
73. Shortly before the referendum, the Indonesian state released several imprisoned political activists in the Timorese resistance, notably Gusmao, who may be the future leader of anindependent East Timor state. Gusmao, who was released from prison after serving part of his 20-year term, remained under house arrest in Jakarta until shortly after the results of the referendum were announced. According to an Associated Press report, Gusmao was released by the Indonesian government "amid hope he can calm the violence". However, the motives of a government, which was largely responsible for the unfolding violence in East Timor, and for disappearing, killing and torturing civilians and employing other instruments of state control against them, are questionable in light of Gusmao's release in Jakarta and fears for his safety in East Timor. See The Associated Press, "Despite Imposition of Martial Law, Violence Festers in East Timor", The New York Times (6 September 1999), posted at 〈http:// www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/ap-timor.html〉
74. Resolution 1264 (1999). 15 September 1999. Posted at 〈http://www.un.org/peace/etimor/ 9926481E.htm〉.
75. The western half of Timor island was colonised by the Dutch and became a part of Indonesia at independence.
76. It is generally acknowledged that the eastern half of the island of Timor was under the administrative control of Portugal at least since the middle of the 18th century, although the Portuguese had traded on the island as early as 1511. See Richard W. Franke, East Timor: The Hidden War (New York: East Timor Defense Committee, 1976), pp. 4-5;
77. East Timor: Five Years after the Indonesian Invasion: Testimony Presented at the Decolonization Committee, UN General Assembly, October 1980 (Cambridge, MA: Cultural Survival, 1981), pp. 1-2.
78. Another source, the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, in its report The Human Rights and Conditions of the People of East Timor (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1983) states that the "impact of European colonialism on East Timor has been less significant than a superficial reading of that region's history would suggest" (pp. 2-3) This interpretation rests on the notion that Portugal's presence was limited to trading posts and the immediate hinterland until the early part of the 20th century.
79. Franke, The Human Rights and Conditions of the People of East Timor ( op. cit., p. 7;
80. Australian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, The Human Rights and Conditions of the People of East Timor ( op. cit., pp. 5-6.
81. Australian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, The Human Rights and Conditions of the People of East Timor ( op. cit., p. 7.
82. Charles Scheiner, The Human Rights and Conditions of the People of East Timor ( op. cit.
83. See also East Timor Action Network, Background on East Timor and US policy (November 1998).
84. Constancio Pinto and Matthew Jardine, East Timor's Unfinished Struggle: Inside the Timorese Resistance (Boston: South End Press, 1997), p. 17.
85. Amnesty International, East Timor Violations of Human Rights: Extrajudicial Executions, "Disappearances", Torture and Political Imprisonment, 1975-1984 (Amnesty International Publications: London, 1985), p. 4.
86. East Timor Action Network, Background on East Timor and US policy.
87. See Arnold Kohen and John Taylor, An Act of Genocide: Indonesia's Invasion of East Timor (London: TAPOL (UK), 1979).
88. Sukarno also reacted strongly to the creation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, and denounced it as a neo-colonial plot to undermine Indonesia and a slap in the face of pan-Malay nationalism in the region. His "Crush Malaysia" campaign failed, and with it the movement towards a panMalay nationalist identity, which had a following in Malaya and Borneo, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
89. Department of Foreign Affairs, Decolonization in East Timor (Republic of Indonesia, Department of Foreign Affairs, 1977), pp. 18, 38-39.
90. For example, an Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs publication claims that "Timor has been part of the Sriwijaya and Mojopahit Empires which successively dominated much of Southeast Asia for nearly one thousand years", in Department of Foreign Affairs, Decolonization in East Timor ( op. cit., p. 12.
91. East Timor: Five Years after the Indonesian Invasion, op. cit., p. 24.
92. East Timor: Five Years after the Indonesian Invasion, Ibid., p. 26.
93. East Timor: Five Years after the Indonesian Invasion, Ibid., p. 29.
94. Prakash, East Timor: Five Years after the Indonesian Invasion, op. cit., p. 4.
95. Some of these resolutions include: US House of Representatives, H. Con. Res. 240, 14 November 1991; S. Res. 237, 22 May 1998; H. Con. Res 258, 23 April 1998. Posted at 〈http://web.lexis-nexis.com/ congcom〉.
96. This is the central focus of ETAN.
97. Amnesty International, East Timor Violations, op. cit., p. 13.
98. Telephone interview with Charles Scheiner, National Coordinator of ETAN (January 1999).
99. The letter dated 4 August 1998 was sent to the three men as a new round of talks began on East Timor.
100. "Open Letter to all Members of the Commission on Human Rights from Amnesty International's Secretary General, Pierre Sané." News Service (21 September 1999), posted at 〈http:www.amnestyusa. org/news/1999/32116099.htm〉.
101. The convening of the second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET II) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in November 1996 ended abruptly when dozens of youths from Malaysia's ruling coalition of parties forcibly put a stop to it by breaking down the conference doors after the meeting began, and harassed and attacked participants. The police arrived and intervened but, instead of arresting all the culprits, they rounded up participants, deported the foreign delegates, and arrested and detained 59 local activists, academics and journalists for several days. Only a handful from the mob which attacked the participants were arrested. This incident was an indication of the extent to which the Malaysian state would go to protect its bilateral relations with Indonesia. A good account of these events appears in Sumit Mandal's "Personal Statement of an APCET II Detainee", which was disseminated across the Internet to the human rights community and other observers in Malaysia and abroad on 25 April 1997.
102. The General Assembly passed a resolution in 1980 with a vote of 58 in favour, 35 against and 40 abstentions on "East Timor's right to self-determination and independence" (East Timor: Five Years after the Indonesian Invasion, op. cit., p. 2).
103. Amnesty International, however, reports that the size of the majority in favour in the General Assembly declined from that in 1975, when the vote was 72 for, 10 against with 43 abstentions to 50 for, 46 against, with 50 abstentions in 1982. By the middle 1980s, discussions on East Timor were deferred by the General Assembly, and the Secretary General was instructed in its 1982 resolution to talk to all parties concerned to bring about a "comprehensive settlement" (Amnesty International, East Timor Violations, op. cit., p. 4).
104. Amnesty International, East Timor Violations, op. cit., pp. 4-5.
105. United Nations Commission on Human Rights, "Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in any Part of the World, with Particular Reference to Colonial and other Dependent Countries and Territories", Fifty-third session/Agenda item 10 (Economic and Social Council E/CN.4/1997/L.9610).
106. "The Right Discovers East Timor", The Progressive, Vol. 61, No. 5 (1997), p. 2.
107. Federal News Service, "State Department Briefing: Secretary of State, Madeleine K. Albright, and Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Alatas (joint press conference, Jakarta, Indonesia, 5 March 1999), posted at 〈http://web.lexis-nexis.com/univers〉.
108. Interview with FORTILOS activist, July 1998.
109. One-day seminar on a just resolution of the East Timor problem organised by Jakarta-based human rights organisation, SOLIDAMOR (Indonesian Solidarity for Peace in East Timor), 14 July 1998, Jakarta.
110. SOLIDAMOR seminar.
111. Interview, 15 July 1998, Jakarta.
112. Ariel Heryanto, "Flaws of Riot Media Coverage", The Jakarta Post (15 July 1998).
113. Ariel Heryanto, " Flaws of Riot Media Coverage", The Jakarta Post ( 1998). Ibid.
114. Shadow puppet theatre.
115. See, for example, press release by Human Rights Watch, "Rights Group Calls for Timor Probe" (23 September 1999), posted at 〈http:///www.hrw.org/hrw/1999/sep/probe0923.htm〉.