about—Israelis w ho think they can kill anybody, because they think
that they have the New York Times, Yad Vashem and the Holocaust
Museum behind them.
East Timor
José R amos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo of East T imor, w ho both
have labored against enormous odds, w ere honored w ith the 1996
Nobel Peace Prize. Any observations on that?
T hat w as great—a w onderful thing. José R amos-Horta has been a
personal friend for tw enty years. I haven’t seen his official speech
yet, but I ran into him in São Paulo and he w as saying publicly that
the prize should have been given to X anana Gusmao, the leader of
the resistance against Indonesian aggression, w ho’s been in an
Indonesian jail since 1992 [and later became president and prime
minister of an independent East T imor].
T he recognition of the struggle is very important—or it w ill be, if
w e can turn it into something. T he mainstream media w ill suppress
it as quickly as possible; they’ll give it some polite applause and then
try to forget about it. If that happens, it w ill be our fault—nobody
else’s.
R ight now, Clinton is planning to send arms to Indonesia. He’ll get
aw ay w ith that unless there’s a real public outcry. T he Nobel Peace
Prize offers a golden opportunity for people w ho care about the fate
of a few hundred thousand people. But it’s not going to happen by
itself.
Some of the major issues have never even made it into the
American press. For instance, T imor’s rich oil resources w ere part
of the reason the U S and Australia supported the Indonesian invasion
in 1975. T hese resources are now being plundered under a
disgraceful Australian-Indonesian treaty, w ith U S oil companies
involved. T his issue has yet to be discussed, except really out at the
fringes. W e can do something about that.
Didn’t you once go to the New York Times editorial offices w ith