Gareth Evans – An apologist for genocide

Australia’s former Foreign Affairs minister Gareth Evans was shocked and surprised at having his appalling historical record brought back into the light. But what is amazing, is that it is so rarely mentioned.
A couple of weeks ago Evans was accused of “supporting atrocities” in East Timor when he was foreign affairs minister.

The accusation came from Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco.

He was visiting Melbourne and called a spade a spade during a public forum with poor Gareth in attendance.

According to media reports Gareth later confronted Zunes:

''at the close of the session Gareth came storming over to where I was, screaming at me, inches from my face saying ''Who the f--- are you? Where the f-- are you from?' And then he grabbed my [conference ID] badge and threw it on the ground”

How on earth can Evans be so shocked? Zunes was saying what everyone in Australia knows - that Evans consistently played down the appalling atrocities carried out by the Suharto regime

It is amazing that Evans has become something of an international statesman.

He is an apologist for genocide in East Timor and this should not be forgotten.

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This is Stephen Zunes letter to the Sydney Morning Herald regarding the confrontation:

Evans actions are proof of hypocrisy

Your report on Gareth Evans's verbal attack on me at a recent conference implied that my bringing up the former foreign affairs minister's support for Indonesia during its repression in East Timor, which prompted the outburst, was off-topic for a forum focused on the Middle East (''Professor gets hell from Evans'', March 20).

In reality, however, it was quite relevant. Evans has been a prominent proponent of the doctrine of the ''Responsibility to Protect'' (R2P), which calls for Western military intervention to prevent massacres of civilians, as in Libya.

However, as foreign affairs minister, he supported close security co-operation with the Indonesian military, which was responsible for the deaths of 200,000 East Timorese civilians. Evans also played down a number of Indonesian atrocities and, in signing the Timor Gap Treaty in 1989, became the first and only foreign minister in the world to formally recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor.

His hypocrisy is now being used by apologists for Gaddafi, Assad and other tyrants to back their contention that R2P is not about protecting human rights, but an excuse for imperialist intervention.

Stephen Zunes Professor of Politics University of San Francisco