---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Age [Australia] Sunday, August 8, 1999 Defence paper `riled' Minister By BRENDAN NICHOLSON SYDNEY A high-level military intelligence assessment of Indonesia's role in East Timor was given to the United Nations by the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, before the Defence Minister, Mr John Moore, was aware it had been written. An angry Mr Moore called in his department head, Mr Paul Barratt, and told him Defence was not to prepare such papers again without his permission. Details of the tension within Cabinet and between the two departments emerged in an affidavit produced by Mr Barratt at the Federal Court hearing in which he is seeking a ruling preventing Mr Moore sacking him. Mr Barratt said the document, providing a frank assessment of Indonesian activities in East Timor, was prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs in June with the help of the Defence deputy secretary in charge of strategy and intelligence, Mr Hugh White. He said Mr Downer gave a copy to a senior United Nations official in New York. Mr Moore then phoned Mr Barratt and told him he was annoyed that Mr White participated in preparation of the paper without his knowledge and he did not get to hear of it until Mr Downer passed it on to the UN. ``No papers are to be prepared by Defence without the knowledge and concurrence of the Minister," Mr Moore told Mr Barratt. Mr Barratt told Mr Moore a lot of people were surprised that the paper was handed over to the UN. ``And, in Hugh's defence, DFAT may have been less than frank with him about the purpose for which that assessment was produced." Mr Barratt also described a conversation with Mr Moore in which the minister said he should provide more advice on Indonesia. Mr Barratt told Mr Moore he realised Indonesia was very important. But the Indonesian defence system was so dominated by the armed forces that the military there tended not to have a clear idea where Australia's civilian defence personnel fitted in. ``... So our practice has been to place heavy reliance on our own senior military people in managing that relationship." Elsewhere in the lengthy affidavit Mr Barratt describes a conversation in which the head of the public service, Mr Max Moore-Wilton, told him that Mr Moore wanted to move him out of Defence. Mr Moore-Wilton said the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, did not want to sack Mr Barratt because that ``would send a very bad signal". Mr Barratt told Mr Moore-Wilton that he might previously have been willing to move to another public service job but he was no longer prepared to do so. ``I didn't give up all I've given up to come back to Canberra for the purpose of being branded a failure and I will resist efforts to move me on that basis most strenuously." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 7 Aug 1999 jam 17:54:45 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
