blessed britons

'My British sources purported not to know what was going on, but they knew what the American plan was. There were bodies being washed up on the lawns of the British consulate in Surabayo, and British warships escorted a ship full of Indonesian troops down the Malacca Straits, so that they could take part in this terrible holocaust. It was only much later that we learned the American embassy was supplying names and ticking them off as they were killed. There was a deal, you see. In establishing the Suharto regime, the involvement of the IMF and the World Bank was part of it. Sukarno had kicked them out now Suharto would bring them back. That was the deal.'

— Roland Challis

mad world

Global military spending has been increasing steadily over the past five years, reaching a massive $1.2 trillion (£0.6 trillion) for 2006, a figure likely to be an underestimate... The USA government is responsible for the lion’s share of this global spend and its funding of military research and development (R&D) is expected to reach an astounding $78 billion (£39 billion) in 2007, a 57% increase since 2001.

— Study War No More

a report on military involvement in UK Universities

robin cook

'training aircraft' for suharto

Submitted by antarchi on February 21, 2008 - 15:35.

President Suharto, who ruled Indonesia, had massacred over a million of his fellow citizens when he seized power in 1965. Over 30 years later, he was waging a vicious war against an independence movement in East Timor. (Foreign Secretary) Robin Cook said he supported the delivery of Hawk aircraft to Indonesia. He claimed that the Indonesian government had assured the Foreign Office that the planes were only training aircraft and would not be used against the people of East Timor. The Hawk was originally developed as a trainer but was also marketed by British Aerospace for use as a cheap ground attack plane. The Hawks were delivered to Indonesia and used to bomb villages in East Timor.

warm hands with suharto

Submitted by antarchi on July 6, 2007 - 02:06.

Robin Cook's first trip abroad included Indonesia, where he shook hands warmly with Suharto...

[He] knew of course. Amnesty filled cabinets with evidence of Suharto's grisly record. Milosevic and Saddam Hussein were wimps by comparison. Shortly before Cook flew in, an exhaustive investigation by the foreign affairs committee of the Australian parliament concluded that Suharto's troops had caused the deaths of "at least" 200,000 East Timorese, a third of the population. In New Labour's first year in office, Britain was the biggest weapons supplier to Indonesia.