Indonesia

THE UNITED STATES provided arms aid to the Republic of Indonesia in a 1958 military coup that overthrew the Indonesian Communist Party (the PKI), a class-based democratic socialist movement. The PKI had come to power through a social force organized by poor citizens attempting to establish a new democracy.

The United States provided this aid to ensure that private U.S. industry would be able to exploit the oil resources of the area, and thus increase the size of the corporate oil market. The actions of the U.S. government on behalf of American corporations in Indonesia stand out, with actions in Chile and Colombia, as examples of international corporate crime.

The island of East Timor became victimized in this economic struggle for Western control of the oil. East Timor is an island located about 300 miles north of Australia and east of the Indonesia. During the colonial era, Indonesia and Timor were both occupied by Western European powers. Between the Timor Islands and Australia lies one of the world's riches oil reserves, containing as much as 5 or 6 billion barrels; thus, since the 1950s, the United States and other Western powers have attempted to wield an influence in this area.

As America began supporting the Indonesian military, Major General Suharto (sometimes spelled Suharto), the military leader, began the extermination of the PKI membership. The U.S. government often opposed class-based democratic movements on the grounds that they might interfere with the free market or multinational corporate growth. The U.S. government did so in Chile in the late 1960s and has tried to do so for years in Colombia. Suharto took over Indonesia with the help of U.S. aid in 1965, along with the assistance of other Western powers. Over one-half million Indonesians, mostly poor landless peasants, were murdered over the course of just a few months. Over the next four decades, the United States trained Indonesian military forces, many of whom were also responsible for the murders of East Timorese when Suharto invaded the region in 1975.

The Indonesian government then began a 30-year project of accumulating foreign debt and Westernizing the country, with 30 percent of the World Bank loans ending up in Suharto's pockets. During the Suharto dictatorship, transnational corporations invested millions of dollars, mostly in oil extraction. The first transnational corporation to set foot in Indonesia was Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold, an American company that immediately began exploiting oil, timber, and mineral resources in a virgin forest.

Prior to Suharto's regime, Indonesia consisted of more than 30,000 different languages, over 20 ethnic groups, and a variety of religions including at least four separate Muslim groups, Chinese Buddhists, Chinese Hindus, Chinese Confucians and Christians. An elite ethnic minority called the Javanese, made up of many of Soharto's relatives, ran the nation while most of the population sank into poverty. Moreover, Chinese and Christian minorities faced widespread discrimination under this regime. The Chinese—who the early Christian colonialists had employed as tax collectors—were not permitted to use their language or worship Confucianism. They were forced to change their surnames and carry ethnic identity cards. They were also refused entry into politics and the military.

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