JAKARTA: For the retired General Wiranto, the former armed forces commander of Indonesia and one-time presidential aspirant, it was a well-rehearsed script. Speaking to a largely sympathetic crowd overflowing a hotel ballroom here, he branded as absurd allegations that the Indonesian military and police officers had committed grave human rights violations during East Timor's fraught passage to independence in 1999.

In the years since Indonesian security forces and loyalist militia beat a destructive and bloody retreat from East Timor, Wiranto has consistently proclaimed his innocence of any crime in the face of allegations by human rights activists and an indictment from a crimes unit funded by the United Nations.

It was unlikely that he would change his story in testimony Saturday to a hearing of the Indonesia and East Timor Commission of Truth and Friendship, an initiative of the two governments to close a bitter chapter in their shared history.

Wiranto told the hearing that "there was no policy to attack civilians, there were no systematic plans, no genocide or crimes against humanity."

The commission is purported to be a last attempt to uncover the truth about the events in East Timor in 1999, avoid the slim possibility of the United Nations setting up a tribunal to investigate the violence and allow the two countries to finally move on. But analysts and human rights activists say the refusal of senior Indonesian military and police officers to accept any responsibility means that by the time the commission concludes hearings at the end of July it will have learned little truth and delivered no justice.


Although analysts say that it is extremely unlikely that the world body will be able to get member states to agree to set up its own tribunal on East Timor, it has not wanted to be associated with a process that might allow military officers, militia commanders or civilians to avoid judicial reckoning.

David Cohen, director of the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, who has been employed as an adviser to the commission, said in an interview that that was a mistake.

He said that while the truth and friendship commission did not have a mandate even to recommend prosecutions, it still provided an opportunity to reveal more of the truth.

The commission has requested a number of documents from the armed forces that could help shed light on the actions of the security forces. Some junior personnel have also been prepared to admit wrongdoing before the commission.

"If the UN refuses to cooperate, it will only make it more difficult for the commission to fulfill its mandate of reviewing all the available evidence and establishing conclusive proof of what happened," Cohen said.

"Whatever critics may or may not think about the commission, I don't know why they would not want to have the commission receive all the information necessary to do its work."

In the aftermath of East Timor, Western countries, including the United States, severed virtually all ties to the Indonesian military. Those links have been steadily rebuilt largely because of the valuable role played by Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country, in fighting terrorism.

In mid-April, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono received a warm reception on a visit to Washington. Yet the United States still  restricts contacts with the Indonesian military and occasionally refuses to train some officers implicated in abuses and raises objections to certain officer promotions.

Analysts say those problems will not go away unless Indonesia is prepared to do more to change its military, starting with greater accountability for military personnel implicated in past abuses.

"It is not in the top five issues that Indonesia has to deal with," said Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group. "But military reform should be writ large as one of the issues the government has to face."
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6/05?2007: Charges 'senseless,' Wiranto tells applauding crowd

Former Indonesian Military chief Gen.(ret) Wiranto finally appeared Saturday before the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), saying he maintained his innocence in the face of "senseless and crazy" accusations.

Dressed in an open-collared shirt and suit, he confidently addressed the packed public hearing of the Commission at the Borobudur Hotel, to frequent applause and laughter.

Wiranto, now leader of a new political party, Hanura, testified in the afternoon. His appearance followed that of former East Timor police chief Insp. Gen (ret) Timbul Silaen and came before the appearance of former deputy commander of the Mahidi militia, Cancio Lopes de Carvalho.

Among those attending Wiranto's testimony were former military officers Maj. Gen. (ret) Adam Damiri and Maj. Gen. (ret) Zaky Anwar Makarim. Along with Wiranto both were previously indicted by the East Timor Serious Crime Unit. Adam testified before the commission in its first hearing in Bali last month.

Indonesian and East Timorese commission members repeatedly questioned Wiranto over his role as military chief and defense minister at the time of the 1999 independence referendum in the then province of East Timor.

Violence before and after the vote left 1,000 dead, according to United Nations estimates.

"How can I be responsible for a policy that was decided by the state?" Wiranto said. The former general argued he was subordinate to the then Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Gen. (ret.) Feisal Tanjung, who has not been summoned by the commission.

At the commission hearing, Wiranto read from his written testimony, entitled "The Emergence of the Light of Truth", copies of which were distributed to the audience.

Dismissing allegations from the international community of gross human rights violations, Wiranto said Indonesian security forces had done their best to prepare for a peaceful and orderly referendum, which took place on Aug. 30, 1999.

"It was extremely difficult for Indonesian security forces to guarantee a peaceful and successful referendum with only three months preparation," Wiranto said.

"But what have we received? No praise, no appreciation or gratitude, but accusations that Indonesia has committed crimes. This is senseless and crazy," he said to applause.

Citing former American security attache John B. Haseman, Wiranto attributed the violence to what he called an age-old "habit" among locals of settling problems through violence, which he said dated back to the Portuguese colonial era.

At the hearing, Wiranto screened a video showing him making an plea for peace before the signing of a pact between feuding Timorese groups in April 1999, with East Timor's two bishops in attendance.

Wiranto denied the military had funded, trained and armed the pro-Jakarta militia groups which subsequently went on a deadly rampage through the province.

"If we had an evil agenda to scuttle the referendum, there wouldn't have been a referendum (in the first place) and there wouldn't have been an independent East Timor," Wiranto said.

Wiranto also repeated the assertion of other military officers who had earlier appeared before the commission that the violence was inevitable in the wake of the announcement of the result of the UN-sponsored referendum.

"For many people who supported Indonesia, they could not see a future after independence. They had to leave and they burned their own houses because they did not want them to fall into the hands of those who they considered their enemies," he said.
Former police chief Timbul Silaen had also denied that troops forcibly moved hundreds of thousands of East Timorese to Indonesia's West Timor and engaged in a scorched earth campaign.

Silaen argued that such a policy would have been "too horrible."

"There is no such thing as scorched earth in our mind," he said.

Charges that Indonesian troops committed gross rights violation during East Timor's 1999 vote for independence were "senseless and crazy", the country's military chief at the time told a truth commission on Saturday.

Retired general Wiranto's remarks were made before the Commission of Truth and Friendship, set up by Indonesia and East Timor to delve into what happened during the independence vote in August 1999.

Wiranto was armed forces commander and defence minister at the time of the vote. Rights groups say he was at least morally responsible for the mayhem and should face justice.

Wiranto has always denied this, saying he did his best to stop the violence.

"It is clear that there was no policy to attack civilians, there were no systematic plans, no genocide or crimes against humanity. Neither was there an act of omission," Wiranto said.

He said the violence before and after the vote was due to years of hostility between pro-Indonesian groups and independence supporters, as well as conflicts dating back to the Portuguese colonial era.

The United Nations estimates that about 1,000 East Timorese died during the post-vote mayhem, which was blamed largely on pro-Jakarta militias backed by elements of the Indonesian army.

Indonesian officials say only about 100 people were killed.

Wiranto said Jakarta had made a great sacrifice to allow East Timor to vote on whether to break away from Indonesia and security forces were not well prepared to cope.

"It was extremely difficult for Indonesian security forces to guarantee a peaceful and successful referendum with only three months of preparation," said Wiranto, dressed in a dark suit.

"But what have we received? No praise, no appreciation or gratitude, but accusations that Indonesia committed crimes. This is senseless and crazy," he said.

'NO EVIL AGENDA'

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 at the end of Portuguese rule and annexed the territory later that year, maintaining a heavy and sometimes harsh military presence.

Wiranto denied that the military had funded, trained and armed pro-Jakarta militia groups who went on a deadly rampage.

"If we had an evil agenda to scuttle the referendum, there would not have been a referendum and there would not have been an independent East Timor," Wiranto said.

East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to split from Indonesian rule but some pro-Jakarta voters and officials argued that the referendum had been rigged by the United Nations, although independent observers concluded the ballot was largely fair.

Wiranto, who stood unsuccessfully in Indonesia's 2004 presidential poll and is set to run again in 2009, said he tried to reconcile conflicting camps by initiating a peace pact between pro-Indonesian groups and independence supporters in May 1999.

At the hearing he screened a video showing him making an impassioned plea for peace to Timorese groups at the signing of the peace pact, attended by the country's two bishops.

He also denied that troops forcibly moved hundreds of thousands of East Timorese to Indonesia's West Timor and engaged in a scorched earth campaign.

"For many people who supported Indonesia, they did not see a future after independence. They had to leave and they burned their own houses because they did not want them to fall into the hands of those whom they considered their enemies," he said.

The truth commission has no power to punish those responsible or recommend prosecution. Militia leader Eurico Guterres, the only person jailed in Indonesia for the violence, is serving a 10-year sentence.

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No gross violation of rights in ETimor: Indonesian ex-military chief
JAKARTA, May 5 (AFP) A former Indonesian military chief Saturday denied that gross violations of human rights were committed in East Timor ahead of the tiny nation's vote for independence.

"The ad hoc human rights court has spent time and energy and it was clearly proven that there were no gross violations of human rights," General Wiranto said during a hearing in front of the Indonesia-East Timor commission.

An Indonesian rights court set up to try military officers and officials for atrocities in East Timor was widely condemned as a sham for failing to jail any Indonesians.

Violence erupted in the half-island nation in 1999 around a UN-administered referendum at which East Timor chose independence following 24 years of occupation by neighbouring Indonesia.

Wiranto, who headed the Indonesian armed forces at the time, said that rather than gross violations of human rights, "violence that happened was remainders of horizontal conflicts, ordinary crimes that were committed by both sides."

"It was proven that after their independence, East Timor was still plagued with violence and the pattern was similar to 1999 that prompted them to invite the UN police (to help with security)," he said.

Wiranto also questioned the United Nations' decision to give Indonesia the responsibility for security during the vote.

"We were placed in a very difficult position, why were we given the mandate to secure that extremely sensitive project?" he asked, adding that the UN usually assigned peacekeeping missions in such situations.

"However we didn't reject the duty and it was proven to be a success," he said.

Answering questions from the commissioners, Wiranto rejected "accusations that the military were in direct control of militias that conducted" gross violations of human rights.

Militia gangs, which the UN says were recruited and directed by Indonesia's military, killed about 1,400 people and destroyed much of the infrastructure in the former Portuguese colony.

"They were not formed, nor funded, nor equipped by the military and there was no structural control of these groups," he said.

The 10-member commission, setup in 2005, has been sitting in towns and cities in Indonesia and East Timor since February to hear from witnesses to the violence.

Modelled along lines similar to South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it aims at reconciliation rather than recrimination.

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Former top Indonesian general denies blame for E. Timor violence
JAKARTA, May 5 (Kyodo News) Indonesia's former armed forces commander said Saturday he could not be blamed for a wave of violence in East Timor after it voted to break away from Indonesia in 1999.

''How could I have to be accountable for a policy decided by the state to run the referendum? Besides that, we did not do the gross human right violations as accused by (the United Nations),'' former Gen. Wiranto, who was military commander and coordinating minister for political and security affairs, said.

Responding to an accusation he is the person most responsible for the mayhem, Wiranto said he was only a part of the state apparatus and not a single person who decided the state policy.

''Because of that, it means the one which was responsible to the security during the referendum was not an individual state bureaucrat, instead the state was responsible, in which the security implementation was coordinated by the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs,'' Wiranto said.

Wiranto admitted, however, he felt ''morally responsible'' and he expressed it by resigning from the post of coordinating minister when he was summoned by Indonesian prosecutors shortly after the incidents.

Wiranto was speaking before the Commission of Truth and Friendship, set up by Indonesia and East Timor to establish the truth of what happened before, during and after the referendum.

The former general also claimed there were no gross violations of human rights at that time as charged by the United Nations.

''It was no extraordinary crime, it was only ordinary crime that could also happen in Poso or Ambon,'' Wiranto said, referring to Indonesian hotspots where sectarian conflicts have claimed thousands of lives, damaged property and forced people to flee.

Instead, Wiranto charged that the accusations against him and Indonesia of human rights violation were engineered to keep Indonesia from questioning the fairness of the referendum.

Wiranto also repeated that the armed forces did not have any command link with pro-Jakarta East Timorese militia and the military did not organize, arm or finance them.

He also denied he failed to prevent atrocities, saying, ''I was only a policymaker, I could not control what happen on the field.''

The United Nations says hundreds of East Timorese died during a violent rampage after the referendum by pro-Jakarta militias backed by elements of the Indonesian military.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 after Portugal ended its colonial rule.

East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to break away from Indonesia in the U.N.-sponsored referendum in 1999.

Aitarak militia leader Eurico Guteres is serving a 10-year sentence at a Jakarta prison for his role in the violence, but more than a dozen military and police officers were acquitted by a special ad hoc tribunal.

The truth commission has no power to punish those responsible or to recommend prosecution.

-----------------------------------------

Some of Indon army may have been involved in ETimor
JAKARTA, May 5 (AAP) The former head of Indonesia's armed forces has conceded that "one or two" of his men may have been involved in the bloodshed that swept East Timor in 1999.

But retired General Wiranto staunchly denied any gross human rights violations occurred in East Timor before and after its historic 1999 vote for independence.

Instead, he blamed the carnage on a long-running internal conflict inside East Timor.

Wiranto - who was indicted by the Dili Special Panels in absentia in 2003 for alleged crimes against humanity and was a presidential candidate in Indonesia in 2004 - today testified before a commission investigating the 1999 violence.

"These were only the actions of elements (of the military)," Wiranto told the East Timor Indonesian Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) sitting in Jakarta.

"It was not based on orders.

"This was not planned, this was just personal behaviour.

"This is just individual responsibility. The Indonesian military didn't take any sides."

The CTF was established by the presidents of Indonesia and East Timor to come up with a "conclusive truth" about the violence that swept East Timor in 1999 to help the nations reconcile.

However, the CTF, which favours friendship with Indonesia over prosecution, has been criticised by human rights groups concerned it will recommend amnesties for alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses and cloud the history of the violence.

Numerous investigations have found up to 1,500 people were killed, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and about 70 per cent of the nation's infrastructure razed when militia groups linked to the Indonesian security forces rampaged across East Timor before and after the historic vote.

Wiranto said the Indonesian security forces had a difficult job of securing the 1999 ballot within just three months because there had been a "horizontal conflict" in East Timor for decades.

He said the ballot itself had been a success and the violence after it was because the losing side was concerned about the legitimacy of the vote.

Wiranto said pro-Indonesia groups told him on September 5, 1999, they wanted to burn down East Timor after losing the ballot, but he told
them not to.

"They said to me: 'Mr Wiranto, we have lost and we will destroy all the facilities that Indonesia has built' ... (but) I said: 'No, don't ... people need these facilities'," Wiranto said.

He told the group they would be "demolished" if they tried to raise the Indonesian flag and continue fighting, because it was against the wishes of the international community and the decision of Indonesia.

"There was no instruction, no plan, no support for the destruction, for the arson," Wiranto said.

He denied he had control of the militia group, or even direct control of his subordinates who may have been involved in the violence.

"Does a commander really know what their direct subordinates would do?" he said.

He said the incidents of violence were "common crimes" and not gross violations of human rights because there was no order from above of state plan behind the bloodshed.

However, he said he had resigned as minister of defence because of his "moral responsibility" for the violence.

04/05/2007: Now or never for Wiranto to come clean on E. Timor

also: 2 JP reports: Op-Ed: The toothless commission of truth [by Robert Evans and Alice Evans, expert advisers to CTF and Founding Directors of Plowshares Institute]; and East Timor council in dark on referendum: Ex-speaker

Former Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. (ret.) Wiranto has a golden chance Saturday to clear his tainted image once and for all.

The chance -- probably his last -- could release him from the "ghost" of rights abuse allegations, should he decide to listen to his conscience rather than his legal and political advisers.

Three short words -- "I am sorry" -- would mean everything to many Timor Leste people, helping to heal the pain they are still suffering from the TNI's failure to act as protector of the tiny territory when it was still legally part of Indonesia in September 1999.

"I am sorry for my failure to fulfill my promise to ensure your safety and security." Those words, which hopefully Wiranto will have the courage to say, are much awaited by those who suffered from gross human rights abuses at that time.

Wiranto is scheduled to testify before the Commission on Truth and Friendship (CTF) -- co-chaired by Indonesia and Timor Leste -- in Jakarta on Saturday. The commission was established to find the truth behind the upheaval surrounding then East Timor's vote to separate from Indonesia.

Of course, an apology would not bring back those killed during the spasm of violence or replace lost homes and property. But at least they would know that Wiranto eventually showed himself to be courageous enough to admit his mistakes.

Even his most skeptical critics would have to admit they had the wrong idea about the general.

Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo -- who was East Timor's bishop until the country's independence -- recently called on people to look to the future and not allow themselves to be imprisoned by the past.

Can Wiranto do that? Yes, though many people have their doubts. Many of those who knew him when he was still a colonel and serving as an adjutant to then president Soeharto probably believe he is capable of admitting his shortcomings and even failures.

People who had the chance to observe him closely when he served as military commander under Soeharto and B.J. Habibie can hope that Wiranto is an Army general in the true sense of the word.

Wiranto is a religious person. He is a family man. As a father and husband, surely he can understand the suffering of those fathers and husbands who lost loved ones in East Timor.

For the last seven years, the mayhem in East Timor has haunted him, whether he realizes it or not; whether he is willing to admit it or not. He needs to clean his name and prove he is a respectable Army general who understands honor and universal values, even in facing his enemies.

As a journalist, I remain impressed by a remark Wiranto once made that a commander is always responsible for his soldiers' actions, no matter how ridiculous or horrible those actions may be. That does not mean, however, that he ordered his soldiers to commit the actions. But as a commander, he not only has to take credit for the successes, but also blame for the failures.

Why is it so important for Wiranto to apologize tomorrow? Atrocities occurred after the majority of East Timor voters opted for independence from Indonesia. As TNI chief at the time, Wiranto was responsible for the security and safety of the people of East Timor. As a general he failed to protect Indonesian citizens. (Legally, the people of Timor Leste were still Indonesian citizens, until all the necessary international procedures were completed for it to become an independent state.)

To this day not a single Indonesian general has acted as an officer and gentleman by declaring in public, "Mea culpa."

Hopefully, Wiranto will not repeat the same old defense -- used by many Indonesian leaders -- that it was the United Nations and countries such as Australia that should be condemned for the violence in East Timor, and not Indonesia.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post about two months after the violence, Ali Alatas, who served as foreign minister under Soeharto and his successor B.J. Habibie, said, "Up to the balloting, the report we got from our own people, from the pro-integration people ... is that we were going to win."

"They always reported that we were going to win. So they too were shocked and maybe ashamed. They claimed there were a lot of violations (during the ballot). There were violations but not to the point that you can change 70 percent (who voted for independence) to 22 percent."

Forget the threat that the UN can bring to justice those who are suspected of committing crimes in then East Timor. What General Wiranto urgently needs now is personal peace. When he can overcome 0the "ghost" of East Timor, then he can put up the "Do not disturb" sign. Does he still need outside help? Then he can put up the sign, "Please, clean my room."

This Saturday's testimony will be a chance for Wiranto to prove to the world that this Indonesian general is a world-class statesman. It is now or never.

------------------------------------

The toothless commission of truth
Friday, May 4, 2007


Few citizens know that of the thirty plus truth commissions in the world during the last three decades almost none had any but a few of their recommendations implemented by the respective governments and parliaments to which their final reports were submitted.

This includes South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, perhaps the most famous. In addition, few of the accused principal perpetrators of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity were actually prosecuted, and only a handful were imprisoned despite evidence of responsibility.

Nevertheless, the most effective truth commissions still had influence, even power, but this was primarily moral rather than judicial influence. Few South Africans could still deny the reality of the gross violations of human rights by the apartheid government and military, nor could Chile and Argentina's former dictatorial regimes continue to deny responsibility for the disappearance of thousands of their citizens. Other truth commissions from Rwanda to Guatemala have also revealed sufficient truth that only with great difficulty can leaders and citizens deny heinous acts of murder, rape, torture, and intimidation.

Now, for the first time, there is a truth commission between two independent nations: Indonesia, the fourth most populous and largest Muslim nation in the world, and Timor-Leste (former East Timor), predominantly Roman Catholic and the newest independent nation in the UN. Alice Evans and I are honored to be two of the three international advisors to this Commission on Truth and Friendship (CTF).

The Commission is mandated by the two presidents to reveal the conclusive truth, heal the wounds, and contribute to future friendship following devastating violence in Timor-Leste in 1999. This violence occurred both before and after a United Nations-administered Popular Consultation in which Timorese decided between independence and continuing to be part of Indonesia. CTF's first public hearings in February and March 2007 in Denpasar and Jakarta reveal that meeting these mandates will not be an easy assignment.

A central component of the Commission's task is to reconcile significant disparities in previous human rights investigations and court proceedings in each country. The investigations into the killing, rape and destruction of homes and property in East Timor implicated Indonesian defense forces and local militias or armed groups some of which were reported to be funded and trained by the Indonesian military, police, as well as pro-independence forces in East Timor. However, the judicial proceedings in both countries resulted in isolated, low-level convictions and only three prison terms.

The statements taken during private and public hearings offered by both victims and accused perpetrators or "connected persons" reveal that the violence of 1999 must be seen in the context of the 24 years of Indonesian presence in East Timor. The 1975 invasion followed more than 350 years of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor and was in the context of cold war suspicions that East Timor would become a communist state. Recently released U.S. State Department documents indicate U.S. and Australian covert support for the military invasion of East Timor.

The Indonesian military presence contributed to virtual civil war between pro-Indonesian and pro-independence forces who inherited more than 26,000 weapons left behind by the Portuguese colonizers. Current estimates suggest that up to one quarter of the original East Timorese population and thousands of Indonesian military and civilians died during the next 24 years.

In 1999 Indonesia was in transition on several fronts after 54 years of authoritarian rule to an emerging democracy under the leadership of President B.J. Habibie. At the same time international pressure was mounting for the East Timorese to be able to determine their relationship with Indonesia. With Habibie's support the United Nations assumed responsibility for preparing, supervising, and implementing this process.

However, Indonesia stipulated that since East Timor was still considered part of the nation, Indonesian rather than UN forces would provide security for the Popular Consultation. The violence between the pro-Indonesian and pro-independence supporters escalated during the months before the vote, and following an unexpected early UN announcement of a decisive vote for independence, the majority of the 1000 citizens killed were apparently pro-independence supports, and many villages as well as the capital city of Dili were looted and burned. Thousands of refugees fled to the Indonesian province of West Timor.

For the first time in the world heads of state and senior government, military, and militia commanders are testifying before the CTF under oath to a truth commission about the causes of this violence. Former President Habibie has already testified, and it is anticipated that the current presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste will also appear before the Commission.

The picture emerging from many witnesses is that a biased and flawed electoral process by the UN agency, UNAMET, which was administering the popular consultation, contributed to the explosive violence that followed the vote.

In direct contradiction to two military testimonies which denied any role in arming the militias, other witnesses from the militias have testified that they in fact did receive arms and funding from the Indonesian defense forces.

The CTF has already broken new ground by convincing senior government and military leaders and well as victims from each nation to testify to their understanding of the truth. The eight commissioners appointed from each nation have distinguished histories in the judiciary, foreign affairs, military, human rights advocacy, education, and in field experience as independence fighters. There has been criticism by some national and international human rights NGO's of the inadequate legislative foundation of the CTF and questions about its independence.

However, as advisers, we have experienced these Commissioners as persons of integrity and independence who have learned from one another and who hold a common commitment to the rejection of impunity for human rights violations and to restorative justice, especially focused on the victims.

The commissioners from each nation are pursuing a mutual quest for communal and symbolic ways to heal the wounds of the past and promote effective programs for building friendship as a strong base for God's gift of reconciliation.

CTF may be important not only to Indonesia and Timor-Leste but also to the world. The insights from this unique process of two nations trying to transform a tragic history into a more promising future should benefit future post conflict realities. Try to envision a "truth and friendship" commission between Israel and Palestine, or South and North Korea, or England and Northern Ireland, and even the
United States and Iraq.

The field of international diplomacy and conflict resolution is urgently in need of constructive models of disclosure, healing and restoration. As a Dinka elder from Sudan proclaimed, "The practical meaning of reconciliation is to sit under the same tree and work together for a more viable future for ourselves and our children." The Commission on Truth in Friendship between Indonesia and  Timor-Leste is attempting to do just that.

Prepared by Professors Robert A. and Alice Frazer Evans, expert advisers to CTF and Founding Directors of Plowshares Institute.

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East Timor council in dark on referendum: Ex-speaker
Friday, May 4, 2007
The East Timor legislative council was not consulted on plans for the 1999 referendum which resulted in the province's secession from Indonesia, former council speaker Armindo Soares Mariano said Thursday.

"The Indonesian government and United Nations did not consult the council regarding the referendum," Armindo told the joint Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF).

Armindo, who chose to maintain his Indonesian nationality, told reporters that it was hard to determine what the council thought at the time.

"Several members of the council opted for independence. One of them is now a CTF member for Timor Leste. I fought for East Timor to remain part of Indonesia, so it was clear that I was pro-Indonesia," he said.

Armindo pointed to Maria Olandina Alvez, a former East Timor councilor from the Indonesian Democratic Party.

Armindo, who currently resides in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, said he never felt like a Timor Leste citizen. "I was a citizen of Portugal and later the Republic of Indonesia."

He added that the two neighboring nations should carefully examine other potential strategies to improve relations.

Former commander of Indonesia's Wira Dharma Military Resort, Maj. Gen. Noer Muis, accused the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) of bias in the independence poll.

"We noted 27 offenses, 26 of which were committed by UNAMET and pro-independence supporters at 89 voting stations," Noer said.

UNAMET chief Ian Martin declined to attend the public hearing.

There were 20 reports claiming UNAMET attempted to intimidate and influence people to vote for independence. These reports came from Dili, Suai, Los Palos and Ambeno.

"Reports claimed several voting cards had been punched before being placed inside ballot boxes," Noer said.

On voting day, Aug. 30, there were around 274 voting stations spread over 13 regencies with approximately 438,896 voters.

"UNAMET staff rejected assistance from Indonesian police to guard ballot boxes," said Noer.

On Friday, the truth commission is scheduled to hear the testimony of the former head of the East Timor Referendum Task Force, Agus Tarmidzi; National Commission for Human Rights member Insp. Gen. (ret.) Koesparmono Irsan; pro-Indonesia supporter Berta dos Santos; and former Suai Police chief Sr. Comr. Gatot Subiyaktoro.

Australia's former prime minister, Gough Whitlam, will testify at a coroner's investigation into the alleged killing of five journalists by Indonesian forces during that country's 1975 invasion of East Timor.

Whitlam, 90, has agreed to make the rare courtroom appearance by a top political leader next Tuesday, New South Wales deputy state coroner Dorelle Pinch said Thursday.

Pinch is investigating the death of British-born journalist Brian Peters, one of five Australia-based reporters killed during an attack by Indonesian troops on the town of Balibo on Oct. 16, 1975.

Indonesia maintains the reporters were killed accidentally in cross fire, but several people claiming to be eyewitnesses have testified before Sydney's Glebe Coroner's Court that Indonesian troops were ordered to open fire on the unarmed journalists, then burn their bodies.

Pinch said Thursday that Whitlam, who was among the first world leaders to recognize Indonesia's annexation of East Timor after the invasion, had provided a statement to the inquest but that she wanted to question him further.

"On the face of it I doubt that there's anything further that he could add," she said. "Nevertheless, I don't want it perceived that we haven't canvassed with him to the fullest extent those matters to which he might be able to give evidence."

The inquiry was called at the request of Peters' family. In Australia, a state coroner can investigate any resident's death not due to natural causes, especially if the circumstances are deemed suspicious, regardless of where the death took place.But the court has no power to extradite suspects or lay charges.

02/05/2007: Balibo 5 coroner appeals for info

The New South Wales coroner presiding over the inquest into the 1975 death of an Australian journalist in East Timor has appealed for information about six people who could help the investigation.

The coroner wants to hear from Guy Peterson, Martin Robert Hicks, Michael Griggs, Clive Ronald Shepherd, Sam O'Shea and Brian Osborne.

It is believed they worked at the Defence Signals Directorate's Shoal Bay Receiving Station in Darwin.

Magistrate Dorelle Pinch says they could help the inquest into the death of one of the Balibo Five newsmen, Brian Peters.

The coroner will decide tomorrow if former prime minister Gough Whitlam will be called to give evidence.

Mr Whitlam has provided a written statement to the inquiry into the death of Mr Peters.

But lawyers for Mr Peters' family and two Australian intelligence officers have argued Mr Whitlam should be cross-examined about what and when he learned the journalists had been killed.

Counsel Assisting the Coroner Mark Tedeschi, QC, says the evidence of the Australian politicians is relevant only if it sheds light on what the Indonesian military knew.

01/05/2007: Timor Leste 1999 or, how to sell lies

The horrendous crimes committed in East Timor in 1999 continue to haunt Indonesia. Just as the third round of the Joint Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF) was about to begin, the United Nations sent a message of disapproval about the CTF's idea of offering amnesty in exchange of the revealing of the truth by the perpetrators.

That was the reason the UN chose not to send the former head of UNAMET, Ian Martins, to testify before the commission; earlier, the UN has proposed that a commission of experts review the case. The sense of injustice and troubled conscience about the lies surrounding the matter has long been shared by victims, journalists and observers, who suffered or witnessed the carnage.

Asked about the meaning of the UN's letter, the CTF co-chairman, Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, said he respected the UN's position, but added that he considered the UN's official letter to reflect Martins' attitude, rather than the UN's as an institution. Yet, he expressed pride that the UN had responded to the CTF's invitation, and hoped the ex-UNAMET chief would reconsider his refusal to attend the hearing.

Benjamin's contradictory statement ("a UN letter", but representing a person, rather than the organization) is a conspicuous expression of uneasiness in addressing the question of accountability for the violence perpetrated by some of his country's institutions.

After all, Dili was sent back to "Year Zero" within a week, compared to Cambodia under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, when the same process was "achieved" within two years. It marked the end of Indonesia's decades-long illegal occupation of its tiny neighbor. About 1,400 victims were killed (including three journalists), hundreds of thousands persecuted and deported to the west, women raped, and the country's basic infrastructure destroyed as Indonesian troops prepared to leave the country.

A number of generals, officials and militiamen were indicted, yet all but one were released.

Impunity reigns. Now, almost a decade later, neither Indonesia nor Timor Leste wants to even touch the issue. Unlike in the recent past,the international community has decided to treat the matter as a bilateral affair between the two countries -- in marked contrast to the Bosnia-Hercegovina case in the 1990s, which led to U.S. bombing and the ongoing international tribunal on the ex-Yugoslavia, which prosecutes and punishes the authors and perpetrators of the violence.

In other words, the entire outcome is being dictated by geopolitics. Not justice, but the geopolitics of inequality in international relationships has decided to permit impunity, regardless of the victims. The CTF, too, is a product of this.

Worse still, the crimes of 1999 were artificially separated from the gross human rights violations that preceded them, despite the fact that the 1999 events could only occur as a result of a decades-long brutal military occupation.

The September mayhem obviously was just the tip of the iceberg. The great crimes of the 1970s -- the invasion, Matebian annihilation, Kraras killings, to mention but a few -- have been extensively described by no less than eight thousand East Timorese and published by the UN-commissioned CAVR.

Neither Jakarta, Dili nor the UN Security Council was willing to respond to the report, which could have opened the way toward some sort of internationally recognized tribunal. The geopolitical dictate has turned into a big-states conspiracy to avoid an international tribunal on East Timor.

Yet neither the UN nor, for that matter, Portugal, are innocent. The roots of the matter go back to the May 5 New York Agreement. Since the occupied country of East Timor was defined as one of a "non-self governing territory", all Indonesia had to do in 1999 was to return to the status-quo-ante.

This means that while Indonesia would have remained sovereign in East Timor, it would allow the UN to hold a "popular consultation" (an euphemism for a referendum) in order to resolve the final status of the territory.

As a result, the entire responsibility for the security was entrusted, not to a UN force, but to the Indonesian security apparatus, i.e., the Police, which was previously part of the armed forces (ABRI) and by then, certainly in East Timor, was under the command of the Army. All the UN and Portugal contributed was the Commission of Peace and Stability (KPS), which was to preside over the maintenance of peace and stability.

However, the reality in East Timor throughout May to September 1999 contradicted all aspects of this. The Army, in effect, instructed the Police to turned a blind eye to militia violence. I was able to leave Dili on Sept. 6, while the group of Indonesian observers I belonged to were forced to wander around the country to seek refuge while continuing to be under threat.

There were abundant witnesses to the killings and deportations by Army-sponsored militias, which were only made possible as extra troops and militiamen arrived Sept. 4, the day the UN announced the pro-independence victory.

Crucially, the members of the KPS, which was supposed to monitor the situation, had left the country even earlier. While UNAMET staff were held hostage, Benjamin, who was a KPS member, admitted that he left on Sept. 3, while other members and officials, including Djoko Soegijanto, B.N. Marbun, Koesparmono Irsan and Dino Pati Djalal, departed on Sept. 1. "What could we do? We were instructed by the military authorities to leave the country!" Benjamin honestly admitted.

How could the military order officials and journalists to leave Timor only a few days before the carnage started when they, at the same time, argued, as they always did, that the violence was a result of uncontrolled "civil war"?

In other words, it was all part of the plan and the game. And the game was from the outset shaped by political engineering, dubious assumptions and myths to justify the aggression, occupation and atrocities, which ranged from the mid-1975 attacks by "Timorese volunteers", a "civil war" among East Timorese that supposedly continued until 1999, and the many proclamations of integration by a tiny minority of pro-Jakarta Timorese, which culminated in the 1976 East Timor Integration Law.

These shameful lies also need to be looked at. While truth and friendship are necessary and important for both Indonesia and Timor Leste, a real friendship should not be based on lies to cover the truth and perpetuate the impunity.

01/05/2007: Indonesia's former army chief to testify over Timor