Timor book launched
By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — "The Western world has a moral and political obligation to tell the truth," East Timor community representative Lucia Corte-real told a gathering here to launch a new book, East Timor: A Western Made Tragedy.
Catholic Worker representative Father Dick Pascoe told the May 2 gathering he was concerned that Australia was heading down the same moral and political road as the United States. "This book is a factual documentation of the role played by successive Australian governments from Whitlam to Fraser and Keating", he added. None of these leaders, including Bill Hayden, could have any credibility after the positions they took on East Timor.
Robert Domm, co-author with Mark Aarons, explained that this was the first book on East Timor published in Australia for nine years. It might actually be a step forward if the Australian government did nothing over East Timor, Domm said; "instead it is actively supporting Indonesian policy and aiding the cover-up of atrocities".
[A review of this book appears on page 26.]