Xanana's meeting with Susilo cancelled over atrocity report

JAKARTA, Jan. 25 (AFP): A meeting between the Indonesian and East Timorese leaders was cancelled Wednesday and a trip to Dili by a reconciliation body scrapped, amid tension over a report on atrocities which the Indonesian military committed there.

The secretary of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao said last week that Xanana would meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday to brief him about the internationally-funded report.

Xanana delivered the report, which said at least 102,800 Timorese died as a result of Indonesia's 24-year occupation, to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last Friday.

But palace press official Garibaldi Sujatmiko said no meeting was scheduled.

"It's not on the agenda," he said, declining to elaborate.

The London-based Financial Times said that anger in the Indonesian capital over the report had forced the visit to be called off, according to officials from both countries.

It reported that East Timor's ambassador to Jakarta, Arlindo Macal, said Tuesday that the cancellation marked the first time since 1999 that Indonesia had torpedoed an official meeting.

The ambassador told AFP that the meeting had been proposed for Friday by the East Timorese government.

"But this morning, we received an official verbal note from the government which said that because of unpredictable engagements of the president, the meeting could not be held," Macal said, added that he hoped another date would be proposed.

The Financial Times said Jakarta was upset by Xanana's decision to fly to New York to submit the report to the UN personally, and also upset that its contents were leaked to the media.

The report was compiled by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) in East Timor. More than 7,000 victims testified on human rights violations committed between April 1974 and October 1999.

It blamed the deaths, most of them due to hunger and illness, on the policies of Indonesia's military toward East Timor's civilian population.

CAVR submitted its report to the East Timorese government months ago. But Xanana, who played down its findings during Friday's handover, had wanted to keep it under wraps for fear of irritating its powerful neighbor.

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Australian Associated Press
January 25, 2006

Balibo Five report sparks fresh calls for judicial inquiry

SYDNEY, Jan 25 AAP/AP - A new report backing claims that Indonesian soldiers deliberately killed the Balibo Five journalists has sparked fresh calls for Australia to hold a full judicial inquiry into their deaths.

A report by East Timor's Commission for Truth and Reconciliation says that, based on interviews with witnesses to the deaths in 1975, it believes the five Australian-based newsmen were probably executed by Indonesian soldiers.

The five television journalists - Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham and Tony Stewart of the Seven Network, and Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters of Nine - were killed while covering Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

Official reports have insisted the men were killed in crossfire between warring Timorese factions, but their families have always feared they were murdered.

Mr Shackleton's widow, Shirley, today said while she welcomed the report's finding it would prove useless the Australian government held a judicial inquiry into the deaths.

There were many witnesses willing to identify the Balibo Five's killers, but only before a full judicial inquiry, she said.

"The Australian government has lied through their teeth for 30 years," Mrs Shackleton said.

"It doesn't mean anything unless the Australian government gets its courage together and says it will have a full judicial inquiry.

"I want a full judicial inquiry into these murders."

The latest findings on the Balibo Five were contained in a 2,500 page report handed to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week.

The report highlights many atrocities during the 24 year Indonesian occupation of East Timor and details the deaths of about 180,000 people.

A coronial inquest into the death of Balibo Five cameraman Brian Peters is to begin in Sydney in July.

The deaths of the Balibo Five have sparked controversy about how much the Australian government knew about the incident and when.

British Foreign Office documents obtained last December by relatives of the newsmen showed the British and Australian governments knew what happened to the men and tried to cover up the killings.

Media reports and eyewitnesses have alleged for three decades that Indonesia's former Minister for Information Mohamad Yunus, formerly known as Yunus Yosfiah, opened fire at the Balibo Five.

But appearing before a powerful Indonesian parliamentary committee in 2001, Yunus rejected the allegations and accused witnesses implicating him in the killings of lying.

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Financial Times (UK)
January 25 2006

Gusmaoâ?Ts Jakarta trip cancelled over atrocity report

By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta

Indonesia has cancelled a visit to Jakarta later this week by Xanana Gusmao, president of East Timor, in retaliation for the handover of a UN-backed report blaming Indonesia for the deaths of up to 180,000 people during its 24-year occupation of the former Portuguese colony.

Mr Gusmao was due to present the 2,500-page report to his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during a visit on Friday. But anger in Jakarta over the report ­ which accuses Indonesian forces of using starvation and weapons such as napalm against East Timorese civilians ­ led to the visitâ?Ts cancellation, East Timorese and Indonesian officials said yesterday.

The cancellation highlights the awkward position in which East Timor remains almost seven years after the 1999 vote that led to its independence from what is now its largest trading partner.

It also points to the sensitivities about the loss of East Timor that linger in Indonesia, which continues to refuse to hand over for trial senior military officers indicted by UN prosecutors for war crimes in East Timor.

Indonesia is also under increasing pressure over alleged abuses in the remote province of Papua.

On presenting the report, assembled by a special UN-backed East Timorese commission, Mr Gusmao
sought to play down its findings. The former separatist commander also rebuffed calls for the establishment of an international war crimes tribunal on East Timor.

What incensed Jakarta and has threatened bilateral ties was Mr Gusmaoâ?Ts decision to fly to New York to submit the report to the UN in person, and that its contents were leaked to news organisations.

â?oWhy doesnâ?Tt East Timor just look to the future and become a good neighbour, instead of looking
back,â? said Yusron Ihza, deputy chairman of the Indonesian parliamentâ?Ts defence and foreign affairs commission.

Although it provides excruciating detail of alleged atrocities by the Indonesian military ­ and separatist guerillas ­ the reportâ?Ts broad findings are nnot new.

East Timorâ?Ts official government website cites the toll from Indonesiaâ?Ts 1975-1999 occupation as â? about 200,000 deathsâ?, a figure long quoted by pro-East Timor activists.

Indonesian troops and pro-Jakarta militias are also accused of killing up to 1,500 people -- including Financial Times correspondent Sander Thoenes ­ during Jakartaâ?Ts scorched-earth withdrawal from East Timor following the August 1999 vote.

East Timorâ?Ts ambassador to Jakarta, Arlindo Macal, said yesterday the cancellation of this weekâ?Ts visit marked the first time since 1999 that Indonesia has torpedoed an official meeting. But he said East Timor would continue to pursue a meeting between Mr Yudhoyono and Mr Gusmao to discuss the report.

END