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14 July, 2005ICEM News Release No. 49/1999
The United Nations should intervene militarily without further delay to end the bloodshed in East Timor, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) said today.
"The UN does not require the permission of Jakarta to launch such an initiative," ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe pointed out. "Neither the UN nor international law has ever recognised Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor.
"No trade union can accept that workers should be killed, maimed, raped or driven out of their jobs and their homes because they exercised their democratic right to self-determination," Thorpe said. "We call upon our affiliated unions worldwide to press their governments to recognise the statehood of East Timor and to call for immediate UN military intervention. By preference, this should be clearly a United Nations initiative, rather than military action by any one state or alliance. The thugs who are now on the rampage do not represent working people in East Timor, in the rest of the island or in the archipelago as a whole.
"This August, more than three-quarters of the East Timorese democratically voted for nationhood," Thorpe recalled. "To do so is the right of peoples everywhere. In the age of global capital, however, the economic, mineral and environmental sovereignty of all nation states - even the largest - is severely circumscribed. Beyond the trappings of nationhood, the world's peoples urgently need economic self-determination. Independent trade unions are an essential part of that struggle.
"Backed by many global corporations and many governments, the previous Suharto regime maintained severe repression throughout the Indonesian-administered territories," Thorpe said. "The ICEM quietly assisted the real trade unionists of the archipelago in their fight for genuine reform, and we continue to do so.
"We call upon working people throughout the archipelago and throughout the world to recognise their true community of interest. And we call upon present and future governments of East Timor, of Indonesia and of every other state to acknowledge and to respect in practice the trade union rights set out in the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation."
"The UN does not require the permission of Jakarta to launch such an initiative," ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe pointed out. "Neither the UN nor international law has ever recognised Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor.
"No trade union can accept that workers should be killed, maimed, raped or driven out of their jobs and their homes because they exercised their democratic right to self-determination," Thorpe said. "We call upon our affiliated unions worldwide to press their governments to recognise the statehood of East Timor and to call for immediate UN military intervention. By preference, this should be clearly a United Nations initiative, rather than military action by any one state or alliance. The thugs who are now on the rampage do not represent working people in East Timor, in the rest of the island or in the archipelago as a whole.
"This August, more than three-quarters of the East Timorese democratically voted for nationhood," Thorpe recalled. "To do so is the right of peoples everywhere. In the age of global capital, however, the economic, mineral and environmental sovereignty of all nation states - even the largest - is severely circumscribed. Beyond the trappings of nationhood, the world's peoples urgently need economic self-determination. Independent trade unions are an essential part of that struggle.
"Backed by many global corporations and many governments, the previous Suharto regime maintained severe repression throughout the Indonesian-administered territories," Thorpe said. "The ICEM quietly assisted the real trade unionists of the archipelago in their fight for genuine reform, and we continue to do so.
"We call upon working people throughout the archipelago and throughout the world to recognise their true community of interest. And we call upon present and future governments of East Timor, of Indonesia and of every other state to acknowledge and to respect in practice the trade union rights set out in the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation."