Press Release - from Connect - Ireland
Communications Ltd. 4.30pm GMT,
Thursday 19th August 1999, Dublin.
Connect-Ireland's response to the call for Cyber
War against Indonesia.
In a number of recent international newspapers,
articles have appeared quoting Ramos Horta in the
context of the threat of the use of cyberwarfare
against Indonesia.
There are some points I would like to make to
correct some of the content in these articles.
The attack on us - which was a culmination of
attacks over 9/10 months was NOT directed at a
web site - but at the cctld - top level domain - for
East Timor (.tp) - and therefore much more serious
than stated..
During the course of the attack, we established that
the perpetrators had a full domain registry with them
and were endeavouring to establish spurious
domains - which we can but assume were for
neferious purposes and presumably these would
reflect badly on the Call for Freedom by the East
Timorese.
Our activities and initiatives have established East
Timor's virtual independence, at least as far as the
Internet is concerned.
After the attack we received many positive offers of
support and assistance. The offers also included
possible revenge attacks against Indonesia - which
we stated categorically that we did not want or
condone.
We have not heard from anyone in the current call
for such action by Ramos Horta either in the Irish
Internet community or any other location. If we
had heard of such a potential action, C-I would
have endeavoured to dissuade the use of such
options and activities and hopefully would have
directed the interest and intellectual capacity to
more fruitful channels.
I would like to make our position extremely clear.
We do not condone attacks of any kind on the
Internet or other similar technologies. We believe in
the freedom of speech and in everyone's ability to
conduct their communication for their own
legitimate purposes.
We (C-I) believe there is more to be gained by
maintaining the opportunities that can be developed
through free speech than in conducting
cyberwarfare.
I would also like to add that after the attack on us,
we received support from many Indonesians - who
translated our statement(s) into the many languages
that are used within that territory and circulated
these widely.
We (C-I) are NOT at war with the Indonesian
People.
We were completely unaware of the proposed
activity as given by Horta.
We have not been approached in recent months by
anyone who has stated that they wished to
participate in an activity of this nature. The
response that we received after the attack from the
'hacker' cyber community was all very anti cyber
terrorism.
Since the beginning of this year, we have been
informed on good authority that over 5000 East
Timoreans have been killed. In this light, I can
perceive that leading activists in the cause for East
Timor are under considerable pressure and this will
continue until the implementation of full and open
democratic processes are in place in East Timor.
To my mind Ghandi would have made a much
better Internet strategist than Hitler.
Connect-Ireland believes in the freedom of speech.
We believe that all lines of communication should
always be kept open as there is more to gain
through this process.
I can think of no better environment for managing
"Jaw- Jaw rather than War-War" - than the Internet.
Martin Maguire
Project Director
Connect-Ireland Communications Ltd.
19th August 1999
Connect-Ireland Communications Ltd.,
20 Mark St.,
Dublin 2
Tel:+353-1-6706701 Fax:+353-1-6790089 Mob.+353-86-UCALLME
URL: http://www.connect.ie
-Internet for Everyone-
