It is hard to believe that there are people trying to defend a man responsible for what the CIA termed 'one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century' but a look across the right wing media shows that far from being classed with murdering tyrants such as Stalin, the legacy of Indonesian dictator Suharto is attempted to be spun in a good light.
While controlling the Indonesian army, he masterminded the killing of millions of his own citizens suspected of being Communists. The CIA even handed him a list of suspects to help him on his way.
Under his rule vast numbers of political opponents were killed, jailed or sent to labour camps. Time Magazine presented the following account of the slaughter he unleashed. "The murder campaign became so brazen in parts of rural East Java, that Moslem bands placed the heads of victims on poles and paraded them through villages. The killings have been on such a scale that the disposal of the corpses has created a serious sanitation problem in East Java and Northern Sumatra where the humid air bears the reek of decaying flesh. Travellers from those areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies."
Being an oil rich country, Suharto was feted by the US Government and oil companies who invested over a billion pounds in the Indonesian oil industry. Margaret Thatcher called him "one of our best friends", ignoring the brutal invasion of East Timor in the seventies that resulted in over 200,000 deaths, a quarter of the population.
Papers in the National Security Archive even reveal that Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger dined with Suharto the evening before the East Timor invasion with Kissinger advising him that "it would be better if it were done after we returned to the United States."
So far from being a positive force as some want us believe, he was in fact a murderous dictator who had the blood of millions of his own countrymen on his hands.
As we have seen many times, having oil and being friendly to the West outweighs any number of people killed in a genocide.
5 comments:
I had no idea there were people trying to defend that murderer. Yuck.
Excellent post - this happens time and time again.
The WSJ called him a force for good in Idonesia which was what got my back up at first miz uv and then i found a few other articles about the web.
It does happen over and over ruth, i have fellow lefties who even try and defend Stalin. A murderer should be called a murderer whatever side of the ideological fence they sit on.
Stalin??? Wow... if I ever found myself coming over all fluffy about Big Joe then I think it would be time to take a long look at myself... Same goes for Suharto. Ideologies can be very unhelpful things to have.
Unfortunately the world is full of ideologies, Cheezy. Depends which one you're talking about when you use the word 'unhelpful'.
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