At long, long last New Zealand is paying major attention to the immense sufferings of the East Timorese people. But New Zealanders can do more than send in our military - we can strike a blow at the very people responsible for the quarter of a century of genocide in East Timor. It is imperative that the Government seize properties and corporate assets held in New Zealand by the Suharto family and their cronies. They have been gained through institutionalised corruption, and may very well feature at the international war crimes tribunal to be set up to prosecute the perpetrators of the East Timor genocide. The Proceeds of Crime Act provides NZ legal precedent for this.

Since at least 1993 (when we first learned of the Suharto presence here), CAFCA has been publicly exposing it, calling for New Zealand to not allow investment in our country by such criminals and their cronies. Since the 1998 upheaval in Indonesia, we have been calling for the seizure of those assets. Issue after issue of "Foreign Control Watchdog" has contained details of what the Suhartos and their mates own in New Zealand. The cover story of the latest issue (to be published in November/December 1999) chronicles not only the land owned here (e.g., Lilybank resort, recently sold by Tommy Suharto to a crony for $1), but also the Queenstown real estate owned by the immediate past commander of the dreaded Kopassus special forces, Lt. General Prabowo Subianto, the Butcher of Timor and a prime candidate for any war crimes tribunal. The mainstream media has picked up on some of this, after CAFCA had hammered it for years, but they won't touch with a bargepole our material on the involvement of the Suharto family and cronies in major corporations in this country - starting with Brierley's. That too is detailed in the latest Watchdog.

And we urge you to join us in calling upon the new Parliament, regardless of who's in Government, to hold a Select Committee Inquiry into the assets of the Suhartos and their cronies in New Zealand, and to push for those assets to be seized.

CAFCA Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa PO Box 2258, Christchurch email: cafca@chch.planet.org.nz

ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>