Sydney Morning Herald - September 7, 1999
Mark Metherell, Phil Cornford and Joseph Kerr -- Protesters burnt flags at rallies across Australia and begged for armed intervention in East Timor yesterday as unions threatened to slap industrial bans on Indonesia's missions throughout Australia in protest over the latest bloodshed.
"Howard Howard you can't hide, you're in bed with genocide", about 600 protesters shouted at one of several rallies held yesterday in Sydney, Darwin, Victoria and Perth.
"Save East Timor NOW" was the central message from the protesters as they called on the Federal Government to have the "guts" to stand up to Indonesia and impose economic sanctions.
The union black ban by the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Workers Union (CEPU), came amid rising community outrage.
At least two Australian aid organisations, Caritas and CARE Australia, evacuated staff from East Timor yesterday, saying they were no longer prepared to put their lives at risk.
The union ban -- starting with mail and telecommunications -- is the first shot in a union campaign being co-ordinated by the ACTU. It is expected to spread to bans on Indonesian shipping and Garuda airline.
In Sydney yesterday, 300 union protesters gathered outside the Garuda offices before marching to the Prime Minister's office block.
The secretary of the Labor Council, Mr Michael Costa, called for the international community to step in and said the labour movement would start imposing bans on Indonesian businesses. In Victoria, more than 600 demonstrators marched on a meeting of the Federal Cabinet. While Australia dithered with diplomacy, the speakers said, people were dying.
The secretary of the Australia East Timor Association, Mr John Sinnot, said yesterday: "Why are we so scared of Indonesia? It's bankrupt -- morally and economically."
The ACTU president, Ms Jennie George, said the Government's actions had been "seriously inadequate".
The national vice-president of CEPU, Mr Len Cooper, said bans imposed on mail deliveries and telecommunications repairs at Indonesian organisations in Victoria yesterday would be imposed nationally from today.
Mr Cooper said this would eventually lead to a total communications block on the Indonesian embassy and consulates throughout Australia.
The Australian Red Cross said an attack yesterday on a Red Cross compound in Dili, where 2,000 displaced people were sheltering, was a tragic and serious violation of the Red Cross mandate.
The RAAF yesterday flew five Caritas and two CARE workers to Darwin from Dili after CARE evacuated its 71 Timorese and Indonesian workers, most of them by bus to West Timor.