[asia-apec 687] Post-APEC rant

[David Webster]

Catholic New Times, Toronto, 27 September 1998
Front Burner editorial

By David Webster

If anyone needed further proof of the complete moral bankruptcy of the
Liberal government, it came this month with the release of new documents
implicating Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy
and others in a systematic campaign to stifle democratic protest at last
yearUs APEC summit in Vancouver.

Documents released as part of the RCMP public complaints commissionUs
review of police actions at the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
leaders' gathering centre on moves made to prevent the embarrassment of
Indonesian dictator Suharto. Some of the internal RCMP correspondence
released seems designed to justify police actions as protecting protesters
from heavily-armed Indonesian security officers. The main effect, however,
has been to shift some of the attention to the Prime Minister's Office,
where the actual decisions to stifle protest in the interests of a
successful photo-op summit were made. Now, even the Reform Party has
joined the call for a public inquiry.

In the lead-up to the APEC, a broad-based coalition of Canadian organizations
carried out a host of actions designed to spotlight the human rights
record of some of the leaders being feted as part of CanadaUs RYear of the
Asia Pacific.S Stung by the prospect of opposition, Suharto's foreign
minister announced that the long-ruling ex-general was considering staying
away from the summit. Canada, he said, was a hotbed of anti-Indonesian
sentiment.

Chretien and Axworthy were appalled by the notion that Suharto would give
the APEC summit a miss. Canadian Ambassador Gary Smith publicly pleaded
with Suharto to come. Chretien, the documents reveal, made promises to
IndonesiaUs ambassador in Ottawa that Suharto would not have to face
protesters.

Axworthy took it upon himself to apologize on behalf of all Canadians for
posters that had gone up across the country bearing Suharto's picture and
the caption: "Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity." So while our foreign
minister campaigned for an international war-crimes tribunal, he showed
that his government only opposed war criminals not allied with Canadian
business interests. Suharto, who presided over the deaths of over a
million Indonesians and over the bloody genocide in East Timor, was an
honoured guest -- in fact, Canadian officials had to beg him to come to
Vancouver.

There were limits. Officials told Suharto's entourage that shooting of
Canadian protesters would not be tolerated. Five Indonesian intelligence
officers were arrested during APEC, for installing bugging equipment and
for refusing to identify themselves to RCMP.

The defining image of anti-APEC protests has become the sight of
protesters at the University of British Columbia charging a security
fence, only to be repulsed by police wielding pepper-spray. Other police
actions have been less well-documented.

This may now change. Now we know that the Prime Minister's Office ordered
the removal of a group of students holding a vigil outside the designated
security zone. We know that the Prime MinisterUs Office violated an
agreement with the university to allow even a token protest zone. We know
that political orders came to the RCMP to remove flags, banners and
placards that could not by the wildest stretch of the imagination be seen
as a security threat. We know that Suharto's bodyguards, after asking flat
out if they could shoot Canadian protesters, were still allowed to carry
arms in order to obtain SuhartoUs promise to attend.

And we know much more that is not in the documents. Somewhere, a decision
was made to use violent force against protesters who were engaging in
non-violent civil disobedience and who were prepared to accept the
consequences of their actions (arrest). We know that the Canadian
government (and to hear Lloyd Axworthy tell it, all Canadians) were more
concerned about the feelings of Suharto than the people of Indonesia, who
overthrew him in May. (One Indonesian journalist at the major UBC protest
was amazed at the restraint of Canadian students. In Indonesia, he said,
students would be throwing stones.) We know that somewhere in the Prime
Minister's Office, a decision was made that image was more important than
human rights. Nothing new there: this government has long placed trade
interests ahead of the rights of Indonesians, Mexicans, or anyone else in
countries where thereUs money to be made. Now, it's clear that Canadians'
human rights are also less important than a good photo-op for the Prime
Minister.

-30-

David Webster is  graduate student at the University of British Columbia.
He covered the APEC summit for CNT.

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 \   /    "Long words Bother me."
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