Thanks to Randy Rowland, Donna Barr, and Ron & Emily Austin for donating WTO artwork for this issue. Eat the State! has really been hurting for good artwork lately; the folks we've relied on for years have been less productive this year, and so we don't have the stockpile we usually like to be able to choose from to match the lead articles on our cover. (That's also why we were unable to do a calendar for 2000.) Sooo...if you're a cartoonist, especially of the single panel political cartoon variety, and would like a steady outlet for your work, give us a ring, or e-mail, or write. Whatever! --Geov Parrish Followup file: Regence Blue Shield has reached a settlement with that great protector of the public interest, Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn. Instead of their desired 27% rate increase for individual plans, Regence will get only 25.8%. At some point in her race for Senate someone has got to point out that Senn's record as consumer advocate is way less impressive than it's pumped up to be. --G.P.

I've commented before, and probably will again, on the grotesquely biased media coverage of the anticipated WTO protests, especially from Seattle's two dailies. But the bias isn't limited to Seattle. Normon Solomon, in his syndicated column, cites a supposedly objective front page Washington Post article that describes Seattle's "virulent" protesters. Virulent? Isn't that how you describe, like, diseases? Sure enough. How about some different adjectives: "principled" or, say, "righteous." Or how 'bout "desperately needed." Too much to hope for, I know. --G.P.

One of the main reasons there's been so much media attention paid to the WTO protesters (the Boston Phoenix called it "the Super Bowl of protests," almost matching the hype of the protesters themselves--the AFL-CIO's "Protest of the Century" tag is fairly irritating, actually, as that covers a lot of ground and a lot of pretty significant history) is that the WTO itself hasn't given the media anything to report. A week out from the ministerial and still no sign of an agenda for the meetings themselves. In part this can be chalked up as a win for the opposition; speculation is that the WTO delegations are stacking up as the U.S. and the European Union wanting aggressive new agreements, and 132 other delegations want to go slow and review the impact of what's gone down already. Rather than report this unseemly schism, the WTO is saying nothing. And, perhaps, doing nothing. The Seattle talks may be a huge bust as far as new free trade agreements are concerned. All those protesters in the streets can't hurt, either.--G.P. =title ONE PLANET

The nation of Indonesia is made up of over 13,000 islands and more than 250 different ethnic groups. Throughout the 30 years of Suharto's rule, the nation stayed together through a mix of political repression and military rule. But with a new parliament and president and the example of East Timor's vote for independence, other regions are starting to break away, too--particularly Aceh, the northernmost province on the large island of Sumatra. On Nov. 4, over 50,000 people rallied in the town of Sigli to demand a referendum on independence; on the same day, several members of Parliament from Aceh delivered an ultimatum to the Indonesian government: hold a referendum within a month, or the people of Aceh will conduct it themselves. In response, the military, hoping to pacify the Aceh MPs, offered to withdraw some troops from Aceh, where 300 people have been killed by the military since May. Nevertheless, a rally held in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Nov. 8 drew 1.5 million people--nearly one-quarter of the total population of Aceh. Panicked, Indonesian President Wahid told the press that Aceh could hold a referendum within seven months. Military spokesmen immediately stepped in and clarified that the referendum would be a vote on special autonomy status within Indonesia and not a vote on independence. But so far, Aceh leaders have said they want exactly the same referendum East Timor had--a choice between autonomy status or independence--and nothing less.From: "Up to 1.5 million join Aceh separatist rally," South China Morning Post, 11/9/99; "Aceh will never break away, vows Indonesia," Sydney Morning Herald, 11/6/99; and "Wahid suggests June poll on Aceh's future," SMH, 11/17/99.

Meanwhile, in East Timor, U.N. Peacekeepers can't find about 80,000 people that they assumed were hiding in the mountains from the militias. Instead, they've found more disturbing evidence that Indonesian troops and militiamen herded hundreds of people onto boats and ferried them out to sea, where they executed them and dumped their bodies in the water. Other bodies have been found at sites that were obviously "cleaned up" by the militias before U.N. troops arrived. But as more and more bodies wash ashore, the U.N. team designated to investigate the killings still hasn't arrived in East Timor--two months after it was appointed to do so. The team was being held up by the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which delayed its vote on whether or not an investigation should be conducted (it's anyone's guess as to why ECOSOC has jurisdiction over a human rights matter). Finally, on Nov. 15, ECOSOC voted in favor of the inquiry, and the team can now be dispatched to East Timor--just in time for the rainy season to wash away most of the evidence.From: "U.N. Panel Votes in Favor of Rights Probe in E Timor," Reuters, 11/15/99, and "UN stalling holds up horror inquiry," SMH, 11/13/99.

In West Timor, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR still can't get access to over 200,000 East Timor refugees being held against their will in camps run by the militias. The militias won't negotiate and the Indonesian military won't cooperate, so UNHCR personnel have begun conducting surprise raids, driving trucks into the camps without warning, swooping up as many people as they can, and leaving before the militiamen can catch them. Once refugees are rescued, however, it's not easy for them to get home. Militias still control a three-kilometer-wide swath of land along the border in East Timor. No safe border crossing exists by land, so all refugees have to return to Dili by boat, a few hundred at a time. In the meantime, the World Bank is offering East Timor an aid package on the condition that it "streamline" its public service sector and encourage its farmers to grow coffee crops for export. But East Timor has no public sector, no public buildings left (they were destroyed by the militias), and farmers are returning home to find their coffee plants stripped of beans. Most farmers are planting corn to feed themselves and the returning refugees. According to one U.N. official: "There's not much of an economy to speak of here. They're going to need help for a long time." But the kind of help the World Bank will offer will probably do more harm than good.From: "UN teams snatch Timor refugees," BBC News, 11/3/99; "Gusmao wary of bank's policy push," SMH, 11/10/99; and "Hungry E. Timorese Farmers Forgo Coffee Crop for Corn," Washington Post, 10/26/99, A19.