University students at the demo were especially angry that a man from a regime that killed masses of students in Indonesia, East Timor and West Papua had been invited to speak at their university. The US backed Suharto dictatorship is estimated to have killed as many as a million political opponents.

(Change in perspective from third person to first person perspective here). When we first arrived some of us tried going up to the Presentation Room on Floor 2 of the Clocktower building, where Alatas was speaking, to hear what we had to say. We were hoping he would get angry with us for saying "but didn't you kill people in East Timor?" and then pull the fingers at us like he did to some protesters in Germany 12 years ago (see picture). However, when we got there it turned out every seat was taken. The conference organizer then told us we could come back later when there were fewer people. However, two members of the Diplomatic Protection Squad were there and made us leave (think men from the Police in suits who look a bit like the bad guys on Prison Break and quite possibly have guns). So much for the conference invite on the University website saying “All are welcome”. From then on the Police stopped anyone from entering the building. Some students who had nothing to do with the protest and had arrived to attend the conference were blocked from entering the Clocktower Building. ‘Ordinary people’ from the street weren’t welcome at this rather elite function. Diplomatic staff, ‘yes men’ in suits and docile well dressed students were though. Also addressing the conference was current National MP and former NZ ambassador to the WTO and Indonesia, Tim Grosser. Grosser was a terrible apologist for NZ’s support of the occupation of East Timor in the 1990s and the WTO’s anti-human form of globalization in the 2000s. If the Nats win the next election he could well be given important ministerial roles.

Rather than arresting Ali Alatas for crimes against humanity the Police were guarding him and keeping a watch on us. Despite the fact we didn’t have a loudhailer (it was out of batteries) we yelled some very loud chants including “blood, blood ,blood on your hands”, “no where to run nowhere to hide Ali Alatas backed genocide” and the most fun of all “S,C,U,M. What does that spell? Scum!”. A group of demonstrators snuck around the back of the Clocktower Building, climbed some stairs and started chanting just below the open window to the Presentation Room. I looked inside a window and saw a frantic looking Diplomatic Protection Squad member running down the stairs talking into his ear piece. That moment made my day. However, the evil men in suits weren’t quick enough to stop the demonstrators who swiftly moved back around the front of the building.

Indonesia Human Rights Committee and a new group, Students for Justice in West Papua, organized the demo. The Indonesian Military is currently committing all sorts of terrible human rights abuses in West Papua and is also intimidating left wing groups within Indonesia. Keep a watch out for more events organized by Students for Justice in West Papua.

Members of murderous dictatorships not welcome at our University!