AKI/JP: Indonesia: President Worried by Reports on East Timor Deaths

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Indonesia: President Worried by Reports on East Timor Deaths

Jakarta, 20 Jan. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has expressed concern about media reports saying that Indonesia's presence in East Timor resulted in the deaths of up to 180,000 civilians, presidential spokesman Dino Pati Djalal said Friday. "The President is concerned about the news. But he hasn't received any direct explanation from East Timor. We are surprised because the report does not come from the government but from other parties," he told The Jakarta Post.

Quoting a report issued by the East Timor Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the media reports say Indonesia's 24-year presence resulted in the deaths of 180,000 civilians in East Timor before after
it gained independence from Indonesia in 1999-2002. Indonesia occupied for former Portuguese colony for 25 years.

The report also accused the Indonesian Military of using starvation and sexual violence as weapons to control its former province.

Based on interviews with almost 8,000 witnesses, as well as Indonesian military (TNI) papers and intelligence from international sources, the report detailed thousands of summary executions and the torture of 8,500 people.

Thousands of East Timorese women were also allegedly raped and sexually assaulted.

Dino said the Indonesian government had not received a copy of the original report of the commission.

According to Dino, Indonesia and Timor Leste have closed that "chapter and we are now forward looking".

"We also don't know where the copy will be sent after it is submitted to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today (Friday).Therefore, we cannot comment further on the contents," he said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's defence minsister Juwono Sudarsono rejected an allegation saying that the military used starvation and sexual violence as weapons to control the country.

When asked whether the military had used napalm bombs during its occupation of East Timor, as the report alleged, he replied that the administration of former president Soeharto had "no means to import, let alone to produce" them.

According to The Australian newspaper, the report said that soldiers used napalm as well as chemical weapons to poison food and water supplies during their 1975 invasion of the territory.

END