Sutherland confronted by West Papua activists in Dublin

Sunday September 14, 2003 00:51

by PapuaHead - West Papua Support Group

Peter Piper gets a wake up call....

"I wasn't sure how best to make my point. We had an ongoing protest outside and I didn't want to waste my chance now that I had managed to be suited-up and seated at this greed fest. I waited and waited and before I knew it, got up, walked across the ballroom, approached Sutherland as he sat down and said 'Excuse me Peter, can I shake your hand?'. As he held my hand, I fastened my grip and explained 'now Peter, we're not going to make a scene. I could embarrass you greatly so I advise you to listen carefully. I have a message from the people of West Papua and Ireland. Your policies with BP are nothing other than terrorism. You are plundering their land and hiring the Indonesian military to prevent the natives from living on their sacred land. It's the same in Colombia, Iraq and Turkey where your greed is manifested as terrorism. You are an economic terrorist.....Ireland and its people have had enough of your agenda. We won't stand for being part of another empire. We will not join your military alliances and platforms for a new world order. We know your Bilderberg agenda and we will put a stop it to'.

Recent Articles:
Announcement of the Business Lunch
Pictures of the Protest
Global Trade Think Tank at Trinity College

Ireland's corporate globalisation guru, Peter Sutherland, was confronted with vocal and visual opposition when he addressed the American Chamber of Commerce business lunch last Tuesday.

Arriving by a chauffeur driven car at Dublin's luxurious Conrad hotel, Sutherland was met by members of the West Papua Support Group who were keeping vigil with music, recorded interviews on Ireland's role in the global economy, and signs and banners reading 'Insatiable Feeding Frenzy', 'Free West Papua - Stop BP', 'Sutherland = Corporate Criminal' and 'BP, Bilderberg = Terrorism'.

The protest sought to draw attention to Sutherland, BP, the American Chamber of Commerce and the ideology of greed that binds them. Also to highlight the resultant destruction it causes which mainstream media fails to report.

Indeed the issues involved are numerous.

BP are among the key players pushing the carbon based economy towards global warming.

BP were also involved in training U.S/U.K invasion forces in Kuwait on how to secure and run Iraq's oil fields and in return the corporation was granted immunity from prosecution whilst reaping the vast rewards of Iraq's oil.

In Indonesian occupied West Papua, BP are busy playing both sides of the conflict ' whilst sponsoring and indoctrinating an emerging provisional government in West Papua, they are also paying the brutal Indonesian military to repel native Papuans from demanding access to their own lands.

PETER SUTHERLAND - Curriculum Vitae

Peter Sutherland is arguably Ireland's most powerful representative on the world stage.

He is a former Chair of AIB (during offshore accounts scandal), attorney general, and EC Commissioner responsible for trade. His later roles have included director general of the World Trade Organisation (GATT), Foundation Member of the World Economic Forum. He sits on the board of Investor AB, Ericsson and the Royal Bank of Scotland. He is a Global Counsellor with The Conference Board as well as being Director of the European Institute (USA) and he is presently chair of the Trilateral Commission (Europe), Goldman Sachs and British Petroleum. Back home in Ireland, Peter has achieved a dedicated following at Dublin's Sutherland Centre based at Trinity College.

Not content with this portfolio of proliferation, Sutherland is also Ireland's representative with the sinister Bilderberg group. This secretive international group of politicians, business people and monarchs meet annually to hatch plans for the erosion of national sovereignty, the promotion of corporate power and the setting up of global government. Conspiracy? Possibly but more and more credence have been given to these allegations. In particular Jon Ronson's book 'Them: adventures with extremists' and the Bilderberg.org website.

Certainly Sutherland's present work in pushing the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) would validate claims that multinational corporations are well on their way to taking over national health, energy, education, transport, waste and food systems. You only have to look to New Zealand for proof where Proctor and Gamble and Shell are running secondary schools. Globalisation a la carte! Here, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland are backing the teaching of Global Achievement International in primary and secondary schools.

Sutherland - Profit uber alles.

Faced with intense questioning at BP's AGM last April, he responded to claims of human rights abuses in Columbia's Casanare region by BP sponsored death squads by saying 'That is outrageous' before finally admitting "We on the board and most of the shareholders are not concerned with these matters"

INSIDE AT THE FEEDING FRENZY

Inside at the plush Conrad ballroom, Sutherland was met with a trumped up reception by 100s of Ireland's top business leaders who were getting ready to tuck into a 4-course menu. He took to the stage in a show fit for a president. Cracking jokes and warming up the hungry audience for his speech on ' transatlantic relations', this heavy weight was lavished upon by the business sycophantics.

His speech was nothing extraordinary. Speaking in broad terms as if to offend nobody about Ireland's need to 'open up, get off the fence' and more actively support America, the nation from whom we have benefited so much'. He added that 'whilst I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of whether the war was right or wrong, or whether it was sanctioned under international law'. 'It is time to move on. Europe needs the U.S and the U.S needs Europe'. He engaged in the usual rhetoric that 'globalisation is good for us all and its potential to increase trade and erode global poverty'. And as for Ireland's famed neutrality, well it seems Peter is not too impressed. "Next year during Ireland's EU presidency, we must ensure that a common defence policy is reached and Ireland accepts its responsibilities as a global player'.

Finishing his 20-minute speech to a huge round of applause, Sutherland was approached by a member of the West Papua Support Group and activist within the global justice movement.

"I wasn't sure how best to make my point. We had an ongoing protest outside and I didn't want to waste my chance now that I had managed to be suited-up and seated at this greed fest.

I waited and waited and before I knew it, got up, walked across the ballroom, approached Sutherland as he sat down and said 'Excuse me Peter, can I shake your hand?'. As he held my hand, I fastened my grip and explained 'now Peter, we're not going to make a scene. I could embarrass you greatly so I advice you to listen carefully. I have a message from the people of West Papua and Ireland. Your policies with BP are nothing other than terrorism. You are plundering their land and hiring the Indonesian military to prevent the natives from living on their sacred land. It's the same in Columbia, Iraq and Turkey where your greed is manifested as terrorism. You are an economic terrorist.....Ireland and its people have had enough of your agenda. We won't stand for being part of another empire. We will not join your military alliances and platforms for a new world order. We know your Bilderberg agenda and we will put a stop it to'.

Sutherland was on the hop. He listened with amazement as if hearing dissent for the first time in his life. As his minders watched on, he turned progressively whiter before announcing 'you just don't know what you're talking about'. 'I certainly do and you know it!'

I casually turned away to join the outside protest, avoiding the panicked approaches of U.S embassy staff.

'I had booked into the conference via the American Chamber of Commerce Website using my own name and address but supplying a fake company name'. Dressed up in the corporate attire, I entered the Conrad to scope out the scene. For half an hour I spoke with a Hungarian man who was waiting on a job interview as a security guard. He felt disgusted at the thought of another '6 hour an hour job but had explored all his options. A trained doctor in Hungary, he had fought the Communists before becoming exiled in his own land. "My wife is an industrial chemist and now he is a cleaner for low wages" he explained. "We cannot get other jobs in Dublin and it is near impossible to live....". "Communism, Capitalism - what's the difference?" - "Having heard his story and seeing the protesters outside I put all nerves to one side and decided that Peter Sutherland, a personification of global greed and injustice, had to be confronted.

BACK AT STREET LEVEL

Outside the hotel, 'Free West Papua' banners were displayed. A shaken member of Garda special branch from Pearse St. station came outside to 'congratulate' me on the action and to inquire into the 'particulars'.

It was hoped that more activists would have attended this important function, but anyway definite words of warnings were issued to the masters of corporate globalisation and their willing Irish servants.

"You can't wait around for other people to get involved. I hope this action demonstrates that with conviction and imagination anybody can organise a protest. Indymedia now provides an outlet to document these events" - D.I.Y. Exteriors.

Of course none of these actions were reported in the mainstream press, for some reason a dignified confrontation is not deemed newsworthy.

What will it take to make them listen ?

RELATED LINKS

New Internationalist - West Papua edition
http://www.newint.org/issue344/contents.htm

West Papua news and resources
http://www.westpapua.net
http://www.onebigtribe.org

The Trilateral Commission:
http://www.trilateral.org

The Bilderberg Group:
http://www.bilderberg.org

More Bilderberg links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,496696,00.html

The Sutherland Centre:
http://www.tcd.ie/iiis/news.html

American Chamber of Commerce Ireland:
http://www.amcham.ie/

More Corporate Globalisation antics:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=60956&search_text=business%20studies