The News Behind the Headlines

Indonesia's Wealth-Who Will Control It?

Thirty-two years ago, pro-Western, anticommunist President Suharto toppled President Sukarno's communist dictatorship in Indonesia.

In recent weeks, the liberal media have stressed Suharto's negatives but have ignored the fact that Suharto brought prosperity to Indonesian workers, who benefitted from an average annual growth rate of 8%.  There was just one problem, however; international bankers didn't have a direct hand in the prosperity.

The so-called "Asian Crisis" ignited over a year ago when Michel Camdessus of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) destabilized Thailand by insisting that the Thai baht no longer be tied to the U.S. dollar.  When Thailand caved, the baht fell, causing other Asian governments to devalue their currencies to stay competitive, and the "Asian crisis" was underway. Indonesian bankers were unable to cover loans from international banks with their devalued rupiah.  Then the IMF came to "rescue" Indonesia from the problem it had created by offering tens of billions of dollars in loans, only if Indonesia instituted IMF-dictated austerity measures - one of which allowed the rupiah to float freely rather than be tied to the U.S. dollar.

As IMF demands were honored, the rupiah and wages plummeted as food and energy prices rapidly inflated.  At first, Suharto subsidized the cost of fuel for the Indonesians, but the IMF forced him to stop the subsidies.  The IMF plan caused 100% inflation and riots began.  Suharto returned from meetings abroad, whereupon he reversed fuel prices in opposition to the dictates of Robert Rubin and the IMF, and the rioting stopped momentarily.

As the IMF collapsed the Indonesian economy, deliberately igniting the sparks of revolution, President Suharto was consulting with free market economist Professor Steve Hanke from the U.S.  Professor Hanke advised Indonesia to scrap the IMF plan and create a currency board, tying the rupiah firmly to the U.S. dollar. This plan successfully combated inflation in Argentina and Chile. But the IMF didn't like Professor Hanke or his plan.  Both the IMF and U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin vehemently opposed the establishment of a currency board. We learned that in Jakarta, Professor Hanke and his wife had round-the-clock government bodyguards because a hit team had been hired to assassinate the professor. Even the Wall Street Journal recognized the IMF as an engine of revolution:

...the IMF and U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin who actually calls the shots specifically vetoed President Suharto's initiative to stabilize the rupiah and curb the inflation.  (WSJ, ed. 5/19/98)

In its efforts to control the wealth of Indonesia, the IMF went to great lengths to topple Suharto and put its own puppets in power.  On May 21, Suharto resigned.  Resignation is better than assassination.

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Christian Genocide in Sudan Ignored by World Media

Within the past few weeks hundreds of Christians in the Sudan were slaughtered in attacks sponsored by the militant Islamic regime in Khartoum, whose goal is to make Sudan the first all-Islamic African nation, in spite of the fact that 19% of the Sudanese population is Christian. Dinka villages in the south were overrun by hordes of government soldiers, supported by the Mujahadeen and the Murahaleen, an Arabized raiding tribe.  Armed with government-provided Kalashnikov rifles, they arrived in vehicles fitted with machine guns.

Baroness Caroline Cox, a Christian human rights leader and member of the British Parliament's House of Lords, visited the area shortly after the massacre.  She reported seeing hundreds of corpses strewn in villages that had been raided within the past few weeks and feared that the number of dead could rise to thousands. 

Her report indicated that what she saw were the worst atrocities she had ever witnessed in her travels around the world in giving aid to oppressed Christians.  According to an article in the London Telegraph (Electronic Telegraph, May 26, 1998), Lady Cox said:

The government promised these people food, and gave them bullets.  I have criticized the Sudanese government for much of what they have done; for the way the military have been set against civilians, for their policy of encouraging slavery....But now they have surpassed themselves.

The systematic persecution of the Sudanese people by the Sudanese central government has forced 5.5 million people to flee their homes for safety.  Murder, rape, mutilation, forced conversions, and enslavement are some of the means the radical Muslim government uses in its attempt to Islamize the entire population.   During this latest incident, the entire world media remained silent, save for the London Telegraph. 

Voice of the Martyrs, the organization founded by the author of Tortured for Christ, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, is actively flying in plane loads of food, clothing and Bibles to this largely Christian population.  Those wishing to help them may do so at:  Voice of the Martyrs, P.O. Box 443, Bartlesville, OK, 74005-0443; (800)75VOICE.

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Robert Goldsborough is the editor of Washington Dateline intelligence bulletin, covering the insider goings-on of the Washington establishment.  For subscription inquiries, write American Research Foundation, P.O. Box 5687, Baltimore, MD 21210.