Micronesians fight for health care

Micro-managing

Pacific immigrants face a death panel of their own.

by Alan D. McNarie

Sep 2, 2009

Retired cook Calvin Nelson says that when he came to Hawaii from Kwajalein after the United States had seized his home for a new missile range, he was told, “everything will be covered.” But 20 years later, he learned that a new health program that the state government was issuing for himself and thousands of other Micronesian immigrants wouldn’t pay for the kidney dialysis that kept him alive.

He vowed that if that happened, he would go back and reclaim his home on the missile range.

“Well, I guess I don’t have any choice but to go home and to go to heaven. There’s no other way for me to receive treatment,” he told the Weekly.

Trucy James was in a similar situation, except there was no home left for her to return to. It was destroyed in a nuclear bomb blast-one of 67 such nuclear tests that devastated much of the island chain. Now, like Nelson, she faced a cutoff of her dialysis, without which both would be dead in a matter of days.

Nelson, James and approximately 108 other legal Micronesian immigrants on dialysis got a last-minute reprieve from the governor on August 31, when Senior Policy Advisor Linda Schmidt and Health and Human Services Director William Koller told a group of Micronesian protestors outside Lingle’s office that their kidney dialysis would be covered for the next two years.

Not so lucky, perhaps, were 130-160 Micronesians, including Marshallese nuclear test refugees, who need radiation therapy or chemotherapy for cancer. According to a Health and Human Services press release, the dialysis patients could be treated because Federal courts had ruled dialysis an “emergency treatment” and the Federal government would eventually reimburse the State for such treatment-but “We cannot cover chemotherapy in the same way because the Federal Government does not consider it an emergency.”

“We are working with the American Cancer Society and other providers to find a way to continue chemo treatments,” said the press release. Queens Medical Center said Tuesday it will continue to treat Micronesian cancer patients at no cost, for now.

Hundreds of Micronesian immigrants may lose their benefits entirely, because they didn’t file the proper paperwork on time.

Who pays?

At the heart of the Micronesian health crisis is the state’s budget crunch and a dispute between the U.S. and the State over who should foot the bill for the immigrants. The U.S. is obligated to provide for Micronesian immigrants’ health needs under the Compact of Free Associations, which guarantees residents of the former U.S. Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands access to some U.S. domestic programs and services in exchange for military concessions from the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau and Republic of the Marshall Islands-including the missile range at Kwajalein. Under COFA, the federal government also divides $30 million of “Compact Impact” money annually among Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands to help defray the cost of providing services to Micronesian immigrants. The Lingle administration maintains that it spent over $101 million to provide such services in 2007, but only got $11 million in Compact Impact payments from the U.S. government.

In response to this gap, the Lingle administration is removing Micronesian immigrants over the age of 18 from a program that provided the equivalent of QUEST (Medicaid) coverage, and is enrolling them instead under a new program called “Basic Care Hawaii,” which provides only a fraction of the former coverage. The administration claims it will save $15 million dollars by making the change. Critics contend, however, the change will force the immigrants be forced to use hospital emergency rooms instead of their former health care providers, thus straining the ER’s ability to provide services to all residents.

From Eniwetok to Ocean View

Particularly hard-hit may be the Big Island-especially the rural district of Kau, where relatively cheap land prices and rental costs have lured thousands of Micronesians. According to Dr. Keola G. K. Dowling, who serves as Care Coordinator for COFA Immigrants at the Big Island’s nonprofit Bay Clinics, the island holds 2,000-3,000 Marshallese, 3,000 Chuukese, 1,500 Kosraeans, 150-300 Yapese, 1,500-1,800 Pohnapeians, and 200 Palauans. But Dowling believes those estimates are low. He says more than a thousand Marshallese reside in the remote Kau community of Ocean View alone.

“Almost all of the Eniwetok refugees live there,” he says. “Some Bikinians too. They definitely consider themselves nuclear refugees.”

The U.S. Eniwetok and Bikini were used as nuclear testing grounds, setting off 67 open-air atomic and hydrogen bomb blasts that equaled, Dowling says, “1.7 hiroshima-sized bombs every morning 12 years…One of the islands in their homeland was turned into white light. It was vaporized.”

“Of 160 Micronesians who are under chemotherapy in Hawaii, most of them are from the Marshall Islands, and most of those came from where they blasted those bombs on Eniwetok and Bikini,” Dowling notes.

Bureaucracy vs. culture

The Micronesians’ supporters also claim that many immigrants didn’t know to register for the new program, thanks to a combination of cross-cultural difficulties and poor government planning.

“Their exposure to bureaucratic systems and the necessity of doing paperwork has been pretty limited,” says retired UH-Hilo Professor Craig Severance, who has lived in Micronesia and who wrote a letter to Lingle supporting a delay in the implementation of the new program. He notes that while “Those that have been here for a while are well adjusted,” newcomers from the outer islands have trouble with bureaucracy, and “part of the trouble is not so much their fault as it is the agencies…It’s the responsibility of the agencies to make that transition easy, and not difficult. It’s also to make the translation and the communication of expectations clear, rather than simply stereotyping all Micronesians as being the same.”

When members and supporters of Micronesians United called an ad hoc to discuss the health crisis, some participants brought stories of immigrants who were stymied in their efforts to get their paperwork in for the transition, because they were referred to automated phone services that were either entirely in English or were so badly translated that Marshallese islanders didn’t recognize the reputed Marshallese phone recordings as their own language.

“A lot of them that did call them said that the recording was automated and ‘We didn’t understand it, says Leilani Resureccion of the nonprofit Alii’s Hale, which works with Pacific islanders in Kau. “If you don’t get your form in, then you will lose your health care for yourself and for your family.”

Both Severance and Resureccion note that state law requires the government to supply translators for those who need them.

But translation wasn’t the only problem. Ocean View has no post office. Many of the immigrants get their mail at post office boxes in Kona, 40-plus miles away, and many do not have cars, so they don’t often check their boxes often. So many may not have gotten the notification letters and forms that were mailed out.

Resureccion notes that the Marshallese are a “very communal” people and that the best way to get the word out was through meetings.

“Did the health workers actually come out here and hold meetings to inform them of the change?” she asks rhetorically. “You know what the answer is? No.”

So the Lingle administration may save even more money than it anticipated, by dropping many members from its health care rolls entirely.

Cream-skimming

Participants at the August 31 meeting accused the Lingle administration of achieving the savings it claimed by essentially cream-skimming-keeping Micronesian patients who were unlikely to cost much and dumping high-expense, chronic care patients. One noted that the State of Hawaii was probably actually making a profit off under-18 Micronesians, who required little health care.

“Migrants under 18 are not being taken off of Quest because they get two-for-one matching funds from the Feds,” he claimed.

Downing also notes that the Lingle Administration could have saved money simply by reducing bureaucratic waste. He notes, for instance that both Bay Clinics and another organization got grants to do redundant studies of the immigrants’ needs.

“There was a third entity called the COFA task force, and they had very big funding. As far as I know, they’ve never published anything of what they did,” he adds.

PR problem

On top of their bureaucratic woes, Micronesians in Hawaii are also battling the same image problems that many immigrant groups face. When the Honolulu Advertiser ran a story about the health care crisis, online comments ran heavily in favor of the cuts; many of those commented made remarks to the effect that the Micronesians were freeloading.

That’s far from the truth, according to their supporters. Resurecion says that in Kau, many of the Micronesians work as macadamia nut and coffee harvesters.

“Most of the Micronesians we know are working and some of them are working in professional capacities,” says Severance.

Downing agrees.

“We do not want people ever to be saying of Micronesians that they were victims.”

Source: http://honoluluweekly.com/feature/2009/09/micro-managing/

September 6, 2009

Fallout from nuclear tests leads to health crisis

Sep. 6, 2009 4:33 PM EDT

Fallout from nuclear tests leads to health crisis

MARK NIESSE
Associated Press Writer

HONOLULU (AP) – Pius Henry fears his adopted government will kill him, that the United States won’t live up to a health care obligation to people from Pacific islands where it tested nuclear bombs.

Henry, a diabetic from the Marshall Islands, has received free dialysis treatments three times a week for years, but the cash-strapped state of Hawaii has threatened to cut off him and others to save money.

Like thousands of legal migrants to Hawaii from independent Pacific nations, Henry believes the United States has a responsibility to provide health care to compensate for the radioactive fallout of 67 nuclear weapons tests from 1946 to 1958.

“I don’t have any option. I’m asking the government to help us,” Henry said. “They say we’re like U.S. citizens, but then they don’t treat us the same. It’s really unfair.”

A federal judge’s ruling Sept. 1 temporarily prevented Hawaii from halting critical dialysis and chemotherapy treatments to hundreds of migrants from three nations: Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau. His order lasts at least until October.

Those three countries are beneficiaries of the Compact of Free Association, a 1986 pact with the United States granting it the right to use defense sites in exchange for financial assistance and migration rights.

With doctors and medical facilities lacking in their own countries, many with life-threatening conditions have moved to Hawaii seeking better health care, education and quality of life.

The islanders have struggled adjusting to American culture and their new home. They fill public housing projects and a disproportionate share of homeless shelters, according to a 2007 study. Without college degrees or a command of the English language, many work in fast-food or hotel jobs, which still pay far better than they could earn in their home countries.

“We’re the last immigrants,” said Innocenta Sound-Kikku, a Micronesian whose father, Manuel Sound, suffers from diabetes. “We come here for the same thing everyone else came here for – the chance for the American dream. The U.S. has an obligation after what they’ve done to us.”

The nuclear testing occurred in the Marshall Islands, carrying the explosive power of 7,200 Hiroshima bombs, said Dr. Neal Palafox, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Hawaii. The blasts contaminated thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean.

The residual radioactivity led to high rates of leukemia and thyroid, lung, stomach, skin and brain cancers, Palafox said. Fallout exposure could result in about a 9 percent increase in cancer in the Marshall Islands, according to a 2004 National Cancer Institute estimate provided to a U.S. Senate committee.

“It’s a monster increase in cancer rates no matter how you look at it,” Palafox said.

He said that while the high rate of diabetes isn’t directly connected to the nuclear tests, fast foods and processed meats introduced by the U.S. led to worsening diets in a culture that was dependent on fishing.

The migrants also widely believe the United States owes them for their various illnesses because of the destruction to their homelands and the displacement and agony they have suffered.

While living with diabetes and high blood pressure, Manuel Sound takes about 11 pills daily and said he feels wary of death. If he missed any of his 3½-hour, thrice-weekly dialysis treatments, his health would be in danger.

“One day you miss, and the poison begins to circulate in your bloodstream. I could die if I’m not careful,” said Sound, who has lived in Hawaii for seven years after migrating from Micronesia. “With these budget cuts, I really thought I was going to go.”

The state of Hawaii sought to save $15 million by cutting health services to more than 7,000 migrants, who are treated as legal residents lacking citizenship. Their ambiguous status, as well as their cost to taxpayers, led to the state’s proposed health reductions.

Both the Hawaii government and the migrants argue that the U.S. government should take responsibility for their health treatments.

But federal Medicaid funding to the migrant islanders was slashed when welfare reform passed in 1996, resulting in Hawaii picking up the tab. U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, said he is trying to reinstate Medicaid benefits for compact migrants as part of the pending health care legislation.

“The United States cannot wash its hands clear of this responsibility because the islands will still have that nuclear testing effect for the next 2,000 years,” said William Swain of the Marshallese community organization Pa Emman Kabjere, which means “don’t let go of a good hand.”

In Swain’s family, 15 siblings on his father’s side died from cancer, with the men suffering from thyroid cancer and the women from urine and breast cancer, he said. His 12-year-old niece has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and his older brother died from thyroid cancer two months ago.

While the government lacks data showing how quickly people are moving from these island nations, there were about 12,215 migrants of the Compact of Free Association states living in Hawaii in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many of the migrants said it’s racially discriminatory for the U.S. government to grant lifesaving health coverage to poor Americans while denying it to them.

“It’s wrong for people to be so prejudiced,” said Tita Raed of Micronesians United. “Most of the people in Hawaii moved here. This is not their native island, but they’re upset when other people move here.”

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/HIHON/513d3d78dabe49cd99f8480d90b4f0a2/Article_2009-09-06-US-Health-Bomb/id-p071afd5f28b24c89baf4f2dfa5adc740

August 28, 2009August 29, 2009

‘I Want To Live’ – Micronesians sit in Lingle’s office waiting for meeting

Photos: Ikaika Hussey/Hawaii Independent

Today, Micronesians United held a demonstration at the State Capitol and sat in Governor Lingle’s office to protest the state’s plans to cut of crucial health care for Micronesians in Hawai’i, which they are entitled to under Compacts of Free Association with the U.S. The Hawaii Independent has excellent coverage of the action.

Under the Compacts, Micronesians can travel to the U.S. and have access to services. This was part of the deal when the U.S. gained control over the islands after World War II and established a special “Strategic Trust” over the former Japanese territories, in contrast to the United Nations trusts established for the decolonization of non-self-governing territories.

Rather than provide for true self-determination and the possibility of independence for these countries, the U.S. secretly and deliberately stunted the development of Micronesian nations in order to maintain their dependency on (and subservience to) the U.S. Driven strongly by military strategy and interests, America turned the entire Pacific ocean into an “American Lake”. The Marshall Islands have a special claim to health care due to the U.S. nuclear testing in their islands that have caused an environmental health catastrophe for many islanders.

Below is an article from the Honolulu Advertiser.

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Updated at 4:01 p.m., Friday, August 28, 2009

RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser

Micronesians sit in Lingle’s office waiting for meeting

Advertiser Staff

Micronesians United rallied at the state Capitol today against a new state plan that will cut back on health care benefits to some 7,500 adult Micronesians who are part of the Compact of Free Association.

About 30 members of the group also sat in the governor’s offices for more than an hour after requesting to see her, but aides said she was in a meeting and couldn’t speak to them. No administration officials came out to speak the group.

Elma Coleman, a member of Micronesians United, said she was disappointed the governor didn’t speak to the group. She said they would be back on Monday morning to again seek a meeting with the governor.

RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser

“It seems like she doesn’t care,” Coleman said.

Meanwhile, Lawyers for Equal Justice told Micronesians United members that they were looking into filing suit against the state over the health care cuts.

The new Basic Health Hawaii program would save the state $15 million but limits monthly services to 12 outpatient doctor visits, 10 hospital days, six mental health visits, three procedures and emergency medical and dental care. It does not allow for “life saving” dialysis or chemotherapy treatments.

The new plan is to start on Tuesday.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090828/BREAKING01/90828019/Micronesians%20sit%20in%20Lingle%20s%20office%20waiting%20for%20meeting?GID=3K8YwfKsSiikRo2gb+CSFOfYLZkQuxMph1AiAtEH8Rk%3D

June 18, 2009

Military calls protests ‘Low-Level Terrrorism’

Pentagon Exam Calls Protests ‘Low-Level Terrorism,’ Angering Activists

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

By James Osborne

A written exam administered by the Pentagon labels “protests” as a form of “low-level terrorism” – enraging civil liberties advocates and activist groups who say it shows blatant disregard of the First Amendment.

The written exam, given as part of Department of Defense employees’ routine training, includes a multiple-choice question that asks:

“Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism?”

– Attacking the Pentagon

– IEDs

– Hate crimes against racial groups

– Protests

The correct answer, according to the exam, is “Protests.”

“Its part of a pattern of equating dissent and protest with terrorism,” said Ann Brick, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained a copy of the question after a Defense Department employee who was taking the test printed the screen on his or her computer terminal.

“It undermines the core constitutional values the Department of Defense is supposed to be defending,” Brick said, referring to the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.

She said the ACLU has asked the Defense Department to remove the question and send out a correction to all employees who took the exam.

“There were other employees who were unhappy with it and disturbed by it,” Brick said.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Les Melnyk said the Defense Department is looking into the matter and expects to provide more information later Wednesday.

“We need to determine if it’s something we’re currently doing,” Melnyk said. “A lot of the information in this exam is intended for people stationed abroad. We counsel those people to avoid demonstrations.”

Anti-war protesters, who say they have been targets of federal surveillance for years, were livid when they were told about the exam question.

“That’s illegal,” said George Martin, national co-chairman of United for Peace and Justice. “Protest in terms of legal dissent has to be recognized, especially by the authorities.

“It’s not terrorism or a lack of patriotism. We care enough to be active in our government.”

Bill Wilson, president of the Americans for Limited Government, which supported the Tea Party demonstrations earlier this year, agreed.

“Groups like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, paramilitary orgainzations that are striking at out at something they oppose or hate, that’s terrorism,” Wilson said.

“To equate that in any degree with citizens being able to express themselves seems to me to be headed down a road where all dissent is suspect and questionable.”

Ben Friedman, a research fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, said the U.S. government has a long history of infringing upon citizens’ civil liberties in the name of domestic security.

“It’s the kind of thing that happens when you have large security bureaucracies, which is why they need to be kept in check,” Friedman said. “These things tend to occur in times of panic, like after Sept. 11.”

The ACLU, in a letter of complaint it sent to the Defense Department, catalogued a list of what it said were recent civil liberties violations by federal authorities, including the monitoring of anti-war protests and the FBI’s surveillance of potential protesters at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

Martin said getting information on the extent of the FBI and National Security Agency’s surveillance programs is nearly impossible.

“I have been arrested within 100 yards of George W. Bush and spoken out against the policies of our government in more than 100 countries,” he said. “But they said they have no record on me. I don’t believe that.”

During Bush’s presidency, the Defense Department was criticized for infringing on citizens’ civil rights through surveillance programs designed to protect the nation against terrorist attacks. Brick said she has seen no indication that there will be a change in policy under President Obama.

“We need to see what they do,” she said. “In a number of areas the Obama administration has not backed off and kept the Bush administration line.”

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526972,00.html

June 3, 2009

U.S.-Trained and Funded Philippine Military Implicated in Abduction and Torture of American Citizen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 2, 2009

Reference: Rhonda Ramiro, Secretary General, BAYAN-USA, 415-377-2599, secgen@bayanusa.org

U.S.-Trained and Funded Philippine Military Implicated in Abduction and Torture of American Citizen

Alliance of Filipino American Organizations Vows to Hold U.S. and Philippine Governments Accountable and Demands End to U.S. Taxpayer Support for Philippine Military

The U.S. Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN-USA, denounced the abduction and torture of Melissa Roxas by suspected elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. An American citizen of Filipino descent, Roxas is a well-known Filipino American human rights advocate and was BAYAN-USA’s first Regional Coordinator in Los Angeles, CA and a founding member of the Los Angeles-based cultural organization Habi Arts. Roxas’ sworn affidavit about the torture she experienced from May 19-25, 2009 while in captivity was made public today when she filed a Petition for a Writ of Amparo and Habeus Data with the Philippine Supreme Court, seeking protection from further harm for herself and her family.

In the affidavit, Roxas describes being abducted by approximately 15 armed men, thrown in a van, handcuffed and blindfolded for six days, and dragged from jail cell to jail cell. She recounts being subjected to torture via asphyxiation using a doubled-up plastic bag, repeated beatings to the face and body, and having her head banged repeatedly against the wall by her interrogators. Roxas said that one interrogator stated those who tortured her were from the Special Operations Group (SOG), and she heard one of her interrogators addressed as “Sir.” She also heard gunfire from what she believed to be a firing range as well as the sounds of aircraft, pointing to the high probability that she was held in a military camp. She was denied legal counsel despite her persistent requests and forced to say that she was a member of the New People’s Army.

Roxas was dropped off near her relative’s house around 6:30 AM on May 25. Her captors left her with a SIM card and phone, which one of her interrogators used to contact her after she was released.

“We are distraught that Melissa was subjected to such cruel, inhuman, and blatantly illegal treatment as a result of the Philippine government’s counter-insurgency witch hunt,” stated BAYAN-USA Chair Berna Ellorin. “We must hold the perpetrators of this torture accountable, up to and including the U.S. government which is providing military aid and training to the Philippine military.”

Rather than conducting an investigation into the torture of Roxas and the abduction of her and her companions Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Jandoc, the Philippine Presidential Human Rights Commission (PHRC) issued a statement claiming that the incident was fabricated by BAYAN Philippines and human rights group Karapatan, and that the disappearance of the three involved immersion with the New People’s Army (NPA). The statement from the PHRC was posted on the website of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC on May 28, 2009. Evidence such as official police reports clearly show that the statement was filled with serious factual errors and erroneous speculations; the PHRC statement even falsely cited the non-governmental organizations Asian Federation Against Disappearances (AFAD) and Coalition Against Involuntary Disappearances (CAID). In an open letter to Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Willy Gaa regarding the PHRC statement, AFAD wrote,

“Our Federation is shocked by the content of the said statement, citing us as one of the sources of the information related to the above-mentioned case. We categorically deny ownership of the information mentioned in the statement as a source of our alleged initial investigation…We find it appalling to be considered as a more credible human rights organization compared to Karapatan, since we believe that such a statement is divisive and therefore, uncalled for… While our Federation independently works on the issue of enforced disappearances and despite our differences with other organizations, we also coordinate with the CAID as well as with Karapatan, whose constituency bears the brunt of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the present administration.”

Despite the public outcry for a retraction of the statement, the Philippine Embassy has yet to remove the statement from its website.

“We are incensed that the Philippine government continues to deny that Melissa’s abduction ever took place,” said Ellorin. “The Philippine government’s attempted cover-up of the triple abduction is consistent with their constant denial of responsibility for the more than 1,000 extra-judicial killings and 201 enforced disappearances, despite condemnation and documentation from international human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the United Nations,” said Ellorin. “The tactic of red-baiting and vilification of the victim by Philippine authorities, now also being employed against Melissa, is a common finding in the numerous reports written by international human rights monitoring agencies.”

Roxas’ exposé comes on the heels of the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Philippines. During his meetings with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Gates affirmed the Obama administration’s commitment to so-called “counter-terrorism efforts” in the Philippines as well as for the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). The VFA is an agreement which BAYAN-USA views as the red carpet which paved the way for U.S. military advisers, troops and equipment to train and equip the Philippine military which has been implicated in 1,017 extra-judicial killings and 1,010 cases of torture.

“The torture of Melissa and the triple abduction of Melissa, Juanito and John Edward are directly linked to the VFA and U.S. military aid to the Philippines,” said Ellorin. “The U.S. government cannot claim ignorance or wash its hands of responsibility, when it is U.S. advisors who are training the Philippine military. The recent uncovering of ‘the torture papers’ shows that the U.S. has never stopped employing torture as an ‘enhanced interrogation technique.'”

“It is utterly apalling that Gates is pledging more support for the Philippine military, in light of Melissa’s sworn testimony,” continued Ellorin. “Her abduction should give Congress and the Obama administration even more reason to stop pouring billions of dollars into a regime that abducts, tortures, and kills innocent people. If the Obama administration and Congress are serious about creating real change, they should cut off all aid to the Philippines during the budget appropriations process this summer.”

BAYAN-USA is an alliance of progressive Filipino groups in the U.S. representing organizations of students, scholars, women, workers, and youth. As an international chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-Philippines), BAYAN-USA serves as an information bureau for the national democratic movement of the Philippines and as a campaign center for anti-imperialist Filipinos in the U.S. BAYAN-USA’s online petition against the VFA can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow/. The online petition to demand justice for Roxas, Carabeo, and Handoc can be found at http://www.gopetition.com/online/28021.html.

# # #

January 16, 2009

Action Alert to Oppose nomination of Adm. Blair to top Intelligence post

ETAN Action ALERT

Urge Your Senators to Oppose the nomination of former Adm. Dennis Blair

Tell Your Senator: Nation’s Top Intelligence Post Must Go to Someone Who Respects Human Rights – Not Admiral Blair!

Call your Senators and tell them that you oppose the confirmation of Admiral Dennis Blair as President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence. Call today toll free at 800-828-0498/800-473-6711 and e-mail them via the Senate website ( http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm).

Talking Points

Adm. Blair has a poor human rights record. As head of the Pacific Command, he demonstrated a disregard for crimes against humanity committed against the East Timorese in 1999 and undermined executive and congressional efforts to support human rights in Indonesian-occupied East Timor.

The Senator should oppose Adm. Blair’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence. The post must go to someone who respects human rights and is committed to justice and accountability.

Please let us know if you acted on this alert and any response you receive. Also contact us with any questions – etan@etan.org.

Write a letter to the editor of you local newspapers. See sample letters at http://www.etan.org/action/2006/29alert.htm#Sample .

Background

The Director of National Intelligence coordinates all U.S. intelligence agencies. The post requires Senate confirmation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command from February 1999 to May 2002, Admiral Dennis Blair was the highest ranking U.S. military official in the region during the period of East Timor’s independence referendum at the end of Indonesia’s violent occupation. During that time he undermined the Clinton administration’s belated efforts to support human rights and self-determination in the Indonesian-occupied territory and opposed congressional efforts to limit military assistance. Blair’s troubling record on East Timor demonstrates that he puts maintaining a relationship with the worst human rights violators above justice and accountability.

In early April 1999, Blair met in Jakarta with General Wiranto, then the Defense Minister and the commander of Indonesian forces. Dozens of refugees in a Catholic church in Liquica, East Timor, were hacked to death by militia members backed by the Indonesian military (including the notorious Kopassus Special Forces) just two days before in a well-publicized massacre.

Instead of pressuring Wiranto to shut down the militias, Blair promised new military assistance, which the Indonesian military “took as a green light to proceed with the militia operation,” according to Allan Nairn, writing in the Nation magazine. In fact just weeks later on April 17, refugees from the attack in Liquicia were again attacked and killed in the capital Dili. The next day, Blair phoned Wiranto and again failed to tell him to stop the killing and shut the military’s militia proxies down.

According to journalist Nairn, classified cables summarizing the meeting and the call, say that Admiral Blair “told the armed forces chief that he looks forward to the time when [the army will] resume its proper role as a leader in the region. He invited General Wiranto to come to Hawaii as his guest… [Blair] expects that approval will be granted to send a small team to provide technical assistance to… selected TNI [Indonesian military] personnel on crowd control measures.”

The link between the militia and the military was clear to the U.S. at the time. Princeton University’s Bradley Simpson writes, “According to top secret CIA intelligence summary issued after the [Liquica] massacre. (and recently declassified by the author through a Freedom of Information Act request), ‘Indonesian military had colluded with pro-Jakarta militia forces in events preceding the attack and were present in some numbers at the time of the killings.'”

The Washington Post’s Dana Priest reported that in the bloody aftermath of East Timor’s independence vote, , “Blair and other U.S. military officials took a forgiving view of the violence surrounding the referendum in East Timor. Given the country’s history, they argued, it could have been worse.”

U.S.-trained Indonesian military officers were among those involved in crimes against humanity in East Timor. “But at no point, Blair acknowledges, did he or his subordinates reach out to the Indonesian contacts trained through IMET or JCET [U.S.-funded military training programs] to try to stop the brewing crisis,” wrote Priest. “It is fairly rare that the personal relations made through an IMET course can come into play in resolving a future crisis,” Blair told Priest.

General Wiranto was indicted in February 2003 by a UN-backed court in East Timor for his command role in the 1999 violence. The attack on the Liquica church is among the crimes against humanity cited in the indictment. He is currently a leading candidate for President of Indonesia in elections to take place next year.

Additional background and links can be found at http://etan.org/news/2009/01blair.htm .

For additional action ideas or to link to this alert – http://www.etan.org/action/2006/29alert.htm
John M. Miller fbp@igc.org
National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: (718)596-7668 Mobile phone: (917)690-4391
Skype: john.m.miller
Web site: http://www.etan.org