What's the status of human rights on this, the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights? Abysmally poor, according to a group of Seattle human rights activists. On Thursday, Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, they will demonstrate against the way fundamental rights, supposedly guaranteed by the document's signatories, are being trampled upon. The groups that will come together include Seattle ETAN (East Timor Action Network), the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and Amnesty International Seattle. The groups will focus primarily on the right of self-determination and how it's often been ignored in 1998.

A prime example is East Timor. This former Portuguese colony was invaded by Indonesia in December 1975 after having gained de facto independence from the Portuguese. Eager to control East Timor's natural resources, Indonesia believed it could easily swallow up its much smaller neighbor 400 miles to the south. Yet the East Timorese had no cultural or historical links to Indonesia and offered a stiff resistance to the invasion.

Indonesia responded with a scorched earth policy that relocated thousands of civilians to concentration camps where many starved. Countless others perished during the "Fence of Legs Campaign" in which large numbers of Timorese villagers were forced to march at gun point in an attempt to flush out resistance forces. These and other horrors have resulted in the death of over 200,000 Timorese, roughly a third of the pre-invasion population.

Jakarta's occupying forces have also attempted cultural genocide. East Timorese are often punished for communicating in their native languages and Indonesia's official language, Bahasa Indonesia, is the only one taught in Timorese schools. Meanwhile, thousands of Indonesian trans-migrants have been resettled on East Timorese land, which Jakarta now refers to as it's "27th province."

Of course, all of these actions violate fundamental rights referred to in the U.N. Declaration and other key agreements. Yet our country, which loudly proclaims it's support for the rights of small nations against large ones, the rule of law and so on, has buttressed and bankrolled Indonesia's attempted elimination of the East Timorese as a distinct people. 90% of the arms used in Indonesia's invasion were provided by Washington, D.C. U.S. armaments and aid, over $3 billion worth, have flowed freely to Indonesia ever since. Washington has also given diplomatic support. Each time the U.N. has considered sanctions to punish Indonesia for it's crimes, the U.S. has used it's weight as a member of the Security Council to block any type of action. The contrast with our government's outrage over Iraqi aggression against Kuwait could not be more stark.

U.S. support for Indonesia is based on Jakarta's long time position as a prime cold war ally, as well as lucrative opportunities for U.S. firms to plunder East Timor. These include huge oil and mineral reserves, as well as cheap labor made pliant by repression.

Yet despite the corporate connection, a mounting grass roots campaign has pressured Congress to weaken its substantial support by cutting off small arms, restricting military training and, in November of 1998, voting to prohibit the use of new U.S. arms in East Timor. This momentum, combined with the 1996 Nobel Peace prize awarded to East Timorese leaders Archbishop Carlos Belo and Jose Ramos Horta, plus the weakening of the regime in Indonesia, have buoyed the East Timorese in their movement for self-determination. Yet widespread violence against East Timorese continues; for example, over 50 civilians were murdered by Indonesian troops in the southern village of Alas in late November. Moreover, the Clinton administration, many U.S. corporations, and even state governments here continue to fund the widespread brutality in East Timor.

The demonstrators on Dec. 10 will protest a significant Washington State connection with the tragedy in East Timor. Our state investment board has made millions of dollars of investments in companies that have profited from the illegal takeover of East Timor--most notably Phillips Petroleum. This theft of a people's economic assets when they are under occupation is a clear violation of international law. Our state's investment in this piracy may become illegal under a law to be introduced this coming legislative session by State Representatives Ed Murray and Frank Chopp. ETAN-Seattle is working with Murray's office to develop this "selective purchasing" legislation which is modeled after similar bills introduced in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Although these New England proposals haven't passed yet, the public hearings associated with them have exposed this seldom discussed atrocity. What's more, they have greatly angered the murderous, tottering regime in Jakarta.

On Dec. 10 the connection between our federal and state governments and the carnage being carried out in East Timor will be highlighted through street theater. Demonstrators will act out one of the many massacres of East Timorese civilians by Indonesian troops, while figures symbolizing the Washington State Investment Board and Phillips Petroleum, will step over the bodies, remark on the investment opportunity provided by oil wells, and hand huge checks over to the Indonesian regime. Participants will include students from Nova Alternative High School, members of the Seattle Mennonite Church, and Wallingford United Methodist Church. Volunteers are needed to participate in the street theater and to lend support to the cause of self determination.

Greg Bennick of the Western Shoshone Defense Project will also speak at the demonstration. The Western Shoshone have suffered many of the same indignities that the East Timorese have: loss of land they formerly occupied in Nevada, Utah and California, nauseatingly familiar U.S. government violations of their treaty rights, numerous encroachments on their land by mining interests, and even the confiscation of their livestock by federal agents during a November 1992 raid.

--Joe Szwaja with the help and inspiration of Nova High School students Nicole Bade, Shea Kaufmann, Marek Czaja-Guyott, Graham McDowell and Mara Dvorak.

For more information on East Timor and what you can do, call Joe Szwaja at 633-2836. For more info on the Western Shoshone Defense Project, call Greg Bennick at 860-1510. For information concerning the activities of Amnesty International in Seattle, call Elaine Gibbons at 720-6339.