Sir, - The unfolding outcomes of the referendum in East Timor should not shock us - neither the overwhelming majority vote for independence, nor the continued terrorism of the ordinary people who constitute the nation of East Timor.
As we read this morning's paper we can almost guarantee ourselves that these people are being butchered, as has been the case for almost 25 years, and on a daily basis. The question for us as a sovereign people is to ask: what can we do about it?
Mr Andrews has been present in East Timor representing an EU mandate to oversee the referendum, and the Irish media have maintained constant coverage of the proceedings. Yet, predictably, there has been no analysis of the complicity of European and other Western-allied states in the genocidal oppression inflicted on these people since Portugal ceded its former colony in 1975. This complicity stems from arms sales throughout the Indonesian occupation and from a long media silence on the issue, through business deals on oil reserves in the region, and now through a possible failure to back up the flag-waving and rhetoric of celebrating "democracy in action" with a support force capable of policing the situation.
The East Timorese are now effectively an independent and sovereign people and are calling for help. The duplicity of the Indonesian military in mobilising an endogenous force to continue its terrorism follows a tradition of terrorist states funding proxy armies. The Contra/Sandinista scandal is a case in point. Our representatives have been able to cite international law as a legitimate reason for not interfering in Indonesian "internal affairs" in the past. That excuse was punctured with the vote cast last week.
The integrity of the EU as a complex of democratic states can be considered null and void if we fail to follow up what can otherwise be read as a PR mandate by the UN in East Timor. Credible action in the form of protection is required, and urgently. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin Ryan, Bernadette Duggan, Churchview Mews, Monksfield, Salthill, Galway.