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BMP Statement on Bali massacre
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino - October 17, 2002
According to media and other reports there is much speculation in Indonesia as to who the bombers are: Al Qaeda, or some similar group, local or foreign; the US or the CIA, wanting to create a terrible scare and justification for their "war against terrorism"; the Indonesian military or intelligence services; some faction of the elite wanting to distract attention away from current controversies. Whoever the culprits are, we call on the Indonesian government to find the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice.
However, we demand that the investigations be based on objective facts and not on the automatic blaming of Third World nationals and persecution of innocent Muslims and their legitimate activities and organizations. Therefore we condemn the statements and actions of the Western powers when they outrageously declare, as the US government has done after the Bali bombings, Filipinos, Indonesians, Malaysians (and other mainly Third World nationals) as "high risk" categories, i.e. suspects. This is racist and actively encourages the racist persecution of these nationals and their communities in the West.
We also note that the governments in the region – Australian, Indonesian, the Philippines and others – are cynically using the event to further their own political agenda of bolstering the position of the ruling elite and their imperialist backers, such as the US, at the expense of the welfare of the struggling masses under the pretext of the "war against terrorism".
In Australia the government is cynically manipulating the legitimate sorrow and anger of the people to further erode democratic rights in the guise of the "war against terrorism". This includes renewed attempts to whip up racist and xenophobic hysteria against Muslim migrant communities, as well as to push through "anti-terrorist" laws" which mark an unprecedented attack on democratic rights in that country.
In Indonesia it is anticipated that the Indonesian military, which backs President Megawati Soekarnoputri, will use this as an opportunity to further intensify state terrorism against the progressive movement and the people of Aceh and Papua. As the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign TAPOL states in its October 14 media release: "The atrocity that struck on October 12 must not be allowed to cast a veil of silence over continuing acts of state terror being perpetrated in Aceh and Papua where the military have been intensifying their operations … one of the inevitable consequences [of the October 12 bombing] will be that the TNI, the Indonesian armed forces, in particular the army, will use this as a pretext to step up operations in Aceh and Papua.".
In the Philippines the massacre is being used to renew the push to force congress to adopt draconian "anti-terrorism" bills and to set up a national ID (identification) system. The bills allow for warrantless arrests and other severe restrictions on democratic rights. There is also a major offensive to weaken and ultimately crush the progressive movement in the country. The most blatant example of this is the attempt to go after the CPP-NPA as a "terrorist" organization.
These are all examples of terrorism legitimised by the state – state terrorism. We are also acutely aware that Indonesian society today is a product of one of the most extreme cases of state terrorism in modern history: the Suharto dictatorship, which was responsible for the slaughter of some one million people in 1965-67. Even after 1968 state violence was used to terrorise the population on a periodic basis. Suharto has not even been charged with the violation of human rights and there has not been one single prosecution or jailing of any government or military official responsible for this state terrorism under Suharto.
Similarly in the Philippines masses of people were tortured and killed in one of the most brutal experiences of state terrorism in this country’s history: the Marcos dictatorship, which was responsible for the murder of thousands of people.
Both these acts of state terrorism – murder on a mass-scale -- were backed and financed to the hilt by the US and other western powers, including Australia. The perpetrators of these state crimes are still free and even continue to prosper, protected by the current governments.
It’s these regimes of the elite – both local and foreign, third world and imperialist – that have been responsible for introducing, legitimizing, institutionalising and organizing violence and terror on a mass scale against innocent peoples.
Today we also suffer economic terrorism: the terror of imperialist globalisation, imposed by imperialist institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, imperialist corporations and governments. One of the main weapons of economic terror is the Third World debt, repayments of which are mercilessly extracted by imperialist banks and lending institutions. The terrorism of imperialist globalisation is responsible for condemning millions of people to acute life-blood-sucking poverty.
The isolated acts of terrorism perpetrated by desperate individuals and organizations are by-products of the acute social and economic crisis facing Third World countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines. It’s not a security question. It’s a question of politics and economics. It is a result of the plunder of our societies by both the local and western powers. It is the result of the destruction and disintegration of our societies as a result of this plunder and exploitation. It is the result of the barbarism of the capitalist system, of imperialism.
Ultimately this is the real reason for the acts of terrorism in Bali on October 13 or in New York on September 11 last year.
Such terrorism can only be stopped if the root economic and social causes are addressed. But the governments that claim to have the answers to such terrorism – the "war against terrorism" – are the chief perpetrators of these causes.
They don’t have the answers. They cannot solve the problems. They are the culprits responsible for this and we point the finger at them. The act of terror in Bali is the product of the world that they have created.
We demand:
BMP
International Department
October
17, 2002.
47
Masikap St., Teachers Village, Pinyahan, Quezon City
Tel.
Nos. 9250884, 2598174 E-mail: bmp_national@edsamail.com.ph,
Web
Site: http://www.bukluran.cjb.net