Word: militiaization
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Indonesia says it will abide by the outcome of Monday?s U.N.-supervised independence referendum in East Timor, but the anti-independence militias nurtured by elements in the Indonesian army appear to have no such intentions. Having vowed to wage a guerrilla war if they lose the referendum, the militias on Tuesday continued attacking election officials and independence activists, and stopped pro-independence voters from leaving the territory. Unhindered by Indonesian police, thugs with guns and machetes simply marched into the airport at Dili, East Timor's capital, seized tickets and ordered those they deemed pro-independence...
...They require scraps ?- gaps in the narrative, a hitch or two in the official version of things, plenty of questions unanswered, and, of course, a tragic ending, hopefully brought about by a showy use of government force. Waco has all of these, and a built-in audience: the antigovernment militia types who consider their inalienable rights to be under constant siege from the same government that's supposedly sworn to protect them. Whether you call this contingent patriots or terrorists, conflagrations like Waco are their spiritual grist. And the feds are just making it worse...
...third of the population is estimated to have been killed in the Indonesian army?s campaign to forcibly integrate East Timor. International pressure has forced Indonesia to agree to allow the referendum and to abide by its results, but members of the military began organizing the anti-independence militia to intimidate voters soon after the poll was announced. "It?s impossible to tell whether the Indonesian government is being disingenuous with the West about its intentions or whether they?re simply unable to control the military in East Timor," says Calabresi. "But violence is expected to intensify even after Monday...
...Those skeptics include the lawyers bringing a wrongful-death suit against the government, backwoods militia types (who love to talk about a tape that supposedly shows the FBI using a flamethrower on the compound) and of course Republicans. Thursday, with Republican supersleuth Dan Burton champing at the bit in the House, and Senate FBI watchdog Charles Grassley calling Coulson?s admission "a serious development in terms of further erosion of the FBI's credibility," a suitably peeved Attorney General Janet Reno hurried to get the official ducks back in a row. "The important thing is to keep going until...
...until it turned fatal, occurred at New York City's Astor Place Theater in May 1849, when factions supporting two rival Shakespearean actors--William Macready, the mincing traditionalist from England, and Edwin Forrest, the obstreperous, furniture-chewing American--became so violent at Macready's performance of Macbeth that the militia was summoned. The militia opened fire, and 22 boisterous theater lovers died...