FROM MOSCOW, RUSSIATopic: RUSSIAN/ASIAN AFFAIRS

Also see... Russia '99 Photo Album

MOSCOW, Sept. 17 - Greetings from Moscow! Wish it were a postcard. Instead, it could be an e-mail echo of a bomb exploding somewhere in the Russian capital, as the New World Order's Islamic proxies from the Caucasus unleash a reign of terror against the innocent Russian civilians. And whoever else happens to be in the apartment building when the bomb goes off, of course.

A total of nearly 300 people were killed in the four explosions this month.

On our way today from the Sheremetyevo airport into the center of the city, several Moscow police vehicles could be seen pulling suspects over and searching the trunks of their cars.

Saturday, Sept. 18, 1999:    Moscow police pressed on Friday (Sept. 17) with a security sweep that has netted some 11,000 people, including 30 suspected of involvement in the recent wave of bombings, according to the Moscow Times.  Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo announced Friday that more than 11,000 people had been detained. Of the total, 2,200 people were already on police wanted lists, and 9,000 were suspected of involvement in various crimes.  Police have seized 74 bombs over the past two days alone, he said. [end of update]

But the color of terror is green these days. The Islamic green. Both in Russia and in Indonesia, as it is now in Kosovo during NATO's "peace farce." Different countries, different bombs and bullets; similar hatreds stirred up by the NWO Crisis Factory. One constant the world-over is the color of innocent blood. Which is flowing in increased volume as the deadliest century in human history draws to a close.

Meanwhile, Indonesian protesters launched a wave of sometimes rowdy demonstrations on Sept. 16 as news broke that a multi-national peacekeeping force of about 8,000 troops would soon be landing in East Timor. Australians will lead this NWO expedition. volunteering about 4,500 candidates for body bags in the cause of global imperialism.

Bill Clinton announced that about 200 US troops would be ready to move in 48 hours to support the international peacekeeping mission in East Timor. Although no aircraft will fly into East Timor, and the role of ground troops will be limited, US forces will help provide "communications and logistical aid, intelligence, airlifts of personnel and material and coordination of the humanitarian response to the tragedy," Clinton said, according to the Associated Press.

The American troops will be drawn from regional military installations, including Japan, Hawaii, and Guam. Half will be stationed in Darwin, Australia, and half will be placed in East Timor. Nations already committed to sending troops include Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Portugal.

Reaction in Indonesia to the news of the U.N. intervention was swift and negative. Crowds gathered outside the Australian and British embassies in Jakarta, but were held in check by police. "There is a genuine feeling among elements of Indonesian society that the country is being treated unfairly by the outside world," the London Telegraph reported on Sept. 16.

There is particular resentment at the moralizing human rights lectures being delivered by Portugal, the former colonizer of East Timor, which abandoned the place abruptly in 1974 having ruthlessly exploited its population for four centuries, the Telegraph notes. There is also anger at the similarly lofty tone adopted by Australia, which approved the Indonesian army's invasion of the territory in 1975 and recognized its annexation as a province.

The East Timorese question appears to occupy the same place in Indonesia as Northern Ireland does in Britain, or Kosovo does in Serbia - a hope beyond hope that the problem would somehow go away.

Analysts say this is what drove President B. J. Habibie to make his startling offer, first of autonomy, then of independence to the 800,000 inhabitants. An observer said: "The idea was to get rid of it once and for all." But that attitude failed to take account of the peculiar place that the scrap of land, inconsequential in the context of the vast 13,677 island archipelago, holds, especially for the military.

Relations between Australia and Indonesia hit a new low as Jakarta cancelled on Sept. 16 a four-year-old security agreement between the two countries over the East Timor crisis.

The decision coincided with a wave of anti-Australian sentiment which was sweeping through Indonesia as the Australian-led peacekeeping force prepared to enter the province to restore peace. Intimidating telephone calls, including bomb threats, have been received by the Australian embassy in Jakarta, the consulate in Bali and a number of businesses, some of whom have begun withdrawing staff from Indonesia as a precaution.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and Indonesia were dealt a further blow when a leading Indonesian official said on Sept. 16 the country's 1995 defense consultation agreement with Australia had been cancelled.

The European Union yesterday formally adopted its decision to impose a four-month embargo on arms sales to Indonesia.

If all of this reminds you of the early phases of the Bosnian and Kosovo crises, you're not alone. Here's a contribution we received today from Paul Treanor of Netherlands. Re-colonizing Timor is wrong, he says:

"Once again, a media campaign in western countries is generating public support for a military intervention. East Timor is 'the next Kosovo'. But the comparison with Kosovo indicates why an intervention is wrong.

A military intervention would establish a UN protectorate: Kosovo shows what that means. At first, all decisions would be taken by international organizations. As in Kosovo, they would exercise absolute military power. They would appoint the courts, the police, any local armed forces. The vast majority of the population would be excluded from all political process. A tiny pro-western, English-speaking, elite would be placed in positions of power - first as translators and assistants, later as founders of the UN-funded 'democratic' political parties. The media would be controlled entirely by the UN, which would have censorship powers.

In Bosnia and Kosovo, political and cultural life has become dependent on western foundations. In the Timorese case, the Catholic church would assume that role. Those who opposed the UN protectorate would have no resources to organize an opposition. They will be politically marginalized.

Timor intervention is not an ethical duty, as some media claim (the BBC spoke of a 'moral crusade'). There is no moral duty to help those in danger, beyond the personal level. I can not go to Timor in person to protect anyone, therefore I have no further obligations. I certainly have no moral obligation to support the Australian army, or the Portuguese army, or the US army.

Remember - armies kill people. An intervention in Timor with no casualties is impossible. As in Kosovo, there will almost certainly be revenge attacks - on the Javanese immigrants to Timor. No 'obligation to assist' extends so far, that I have to give political support to a military intervention. There are good reasons to oppose intervention: in reality it is a re-colonization of East Timor.

Timor will become a UN protectorate, on a poor Asian island, close to a rich country with neo-liberal economic policies. It will inevitably become a victim of neo-liberalism. The prevention of genocide can not justify neo-liberalism.

The best comparison is with Haiti. Thanks to US intervention, the population live in abject poverty, with no future except as ultra-cheap labor for US firms. Typical of the conditions on Haiti is, that a main supply of protein is slaughterhouse waste from the US. Even in Bosnia, the poor were reduced to scavenging on the waste dumps of US bases. That is how the US treats a white European population - no wonder the Haitians are treated as human garbage dumps.

That is the future which the Timorese can expect from an Australian-Portugese controlled protectorate. All thanks to a combination of media, 'left-wing' activists and intellectuals, military lobbies, and promoters of a neo-liberal Asian-Pacific economy.

It would be morally wrong to blackmail Timor's inhabitants into accepting that by giving them the choice of 'genocide or neo-liberalism;' the choice - 'be colonized or be killed'.

Reducing a population to a humiliating dependent status, under conditions of extreme poverty, can not be described as 'help'. Colonization is not 'help'. Colonialism was wrong, and is wrong - even if the colonial force prevents violence. The Timor intervention is unethical. It is morally wrong for any soldier to take part in such an intervention: soldiers should refuse orders to participate in an intervention force."

Paul Treanor, Netherlands

Also, check out... "Who Lost China?", ... andsome other TiM articles on Russia... "NWO Retools, Stirs Up Trouble in Russia, Asia", "Is NWO Spinning Out of Control?", "Two Faces of Globalism", "Yeltsin-IMF Deal: Feeding Drugs to Drug Addict", "Russia's Privatization: A Financial Crime of the Century;" "Russia is Still the Bogey", "Kremlin and Wall St/NWO-Two Rival Gangs?", "What Dr. Glazyev Didn't Notice in Brzezinski's Ideas," and "Bleeding Russia Dry" - all TiM GW Bulletins from December 1997, plus "Yeltsin's 'Red October II'" - TiM GW Bulletin 98/3-10, 3/31/98), "Killing Russia Softly"

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns: "Russia, IMF, and Global House of Cards",  "Rekindling NATO to Fuel Cold War..."