---------------------------------------------------------- FREE Subscribe/UNsubscribe Indonesia Daily News Online go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 Free Email @KotakPos.com visit: http://my.kotakpos.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------- The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, February 21, 2000 Diggers had covert role before vote: Jakarta By LINDSAY MURDOCH, Indonesia correspondent Indonesia's civilian government has for the first time backed accusations by its military commanders that Australian armed forces secretly operated in East Timor before last year's United Nations ballot and backed pro-independence guerillas. Indonesia's Defence Minister, Dr Juwono Sudarsono, said there was "strong suspicion" in Jakarta that Australian forces made helicopter and sea landings in East Timor at a time that Indonesia claimed the territory as its 27th province. "There is not hard evidence but strong suspicion," Dr Juwono said. "Hard evidence is very hard to clarify ... but you know the nearness of Darwin and the fact that our troops heard night- flying helicopters and even sea landings makes it very hard for us not to believe it was to support the Falintil [independence] guerillas." Senior Indonesian military officers, including the controversial former armed forces commander General Wiranto, have made similar claims in the past. However, Dr Juwono's comments indicate a belief at the highest level of the government of Mr Abdurrahman Wahid that Australia was covertly supporting opposition to Indonesia's rule before the August ballot, which overwhelmingly rejected Indonesia's 24- year rule. The Australian Government denies claims that its forces went to East Timor before the September landing of UN-sanctioned Interfet troops to end a rein of terror by Indonesian troops, police and their proxy militias. Dr Juwono, Indonesia's first civilian defence minister, referred to a meeting of Australian and United States military officials in Hawaii last year where, he said, it was "anticipated there would be a high degree of conflict if security [for East Timor] was put in the hands of the Indonesians". "There was general mistrust from the beginning," Dr Juwono said. Under a UN agreement, 20,000 Indonesian police and soldiers deployed in East Timor were supposed to prevent violence. Speaking in Jakarta, Dr Juwono said: "The fact that there were some Australian manoeuvres, in our eyes, makes it very hard not to suspect some degree of covert Australian involvement." Mr Wahid has pushed back by several months a promised trip to Australia that is seen by the Howard Government as crucial to improving ties between Canberra and Jakarta that ruptured last year over East Timor. Dr Juwono said claims of covert Australian incursions into East Timor should have been investigated by an independent team of human rights investigators set-up late last year by the previous president, Dr B.J. Habibie, to investigate the East Timor violence. "The inquiry was pretty much one-sided in favour of ... I would not say a lynching but a witch-hunt of General Wiranto and six other generals," he said. The inquiry named General Wiranto and 32 others as responsible for the violence. Its findings are now under investigation by the Attorney-General while General Wiranto has been suspended as Co-ordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs. Dr Juwono said Australia was put in a difficult position when it was asked to go into East Timor, and its troops "did a fair job". Revealing the thinking last year in Dr Habibie's cabinet, which eventually led to East Timor's independence, Dr Juwono said the then government had been under pressure over the international controversy over East Timor and local resentment of development funds spent in the territory. Dr Juwono, who was then education minister, said the feeling among Indonesia's Muslim majority that the "Catholics [the religious on East Timor] had special treatment and it was time to let them go." Referring to East Timor's separation from Indonesia, Dr Juwono said he believed the "Indonesian side just blew it by political mistake, diplomatic blunder and military fiasco". ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 24 Feb 2000 jam 05:20:16 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
