In the words of a World News In Brief-blurb that ran in the January 20 London Independent (i.e., all 64 of them):

Indonesia dismissed an international report that found up to 183,000 people were killed or disappeared during its 24-year occupation of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, saying it was time to “look to the future.” East Timor’s President, Xanana Gusmao, will give the report to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, tomorrow. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled it until 1999.

What this means is that, through the present moment (i.e., Monday, Jan. 23), The Independent has devoted 64 more words to last Friday’s submission by Timor – Leste’s President Xanana Gusmao to the UN Secretary-General of the final report on human rights violations in the former East Timor by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation than has the New York Times and pretty much the rest of the American and British print media combined.

With the notable exception of the January 21 Washington Post in the States, that is. And, of course, the Australian media. Where Sian Powell of the appropriately named Australian (Sydney) first began reporting the imminent release of the Commission’s report with a series of articles dated January 19. (That is January 18 on this side of the international dateline.)

Thus in the roughly six days since The Australian reported that it had obtained a copy of the Commission’s report, “suppressed for months by the East Timorese Goverment” and destined to “infuriate Indonesia, which has punished only a handful of soldiers for the murders, assaults and rapes that occurred during its 24 years of occupation” (“UN verdict on East Timor – Indonesia blamed for deaths of 180,000 civilians,” Jan. 19 [Jan. 18]), the mere mention of the existence of the Commission’s report has infuriated the Indonesian political and military leadership. (Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono, a former commander of the notorious Battalion 744 during Indonesia’s campaign to crush the Timorese resistance, is the current President of Indonesia!) Infuriated a lot of Canberra’s political leadership—past and present. (Gough Whitlam, Australia’s Prime Minister when Indonesia invaded East Timor in December, 1975, is “condemned” by the report, according to The Australian (Jan. 20 [Jan. 19]), for his “tacit approval” of the invasion, and for years of lobbying on behalf not only of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, but its annexation of East Timor as well.) And went over like a lead balloon at the United Nations, where, last Friday, it was ceremoniously handed over to the Secretary-General in New York City.

But no copy of the report has been released to the public. And today, this means that no copy of the report has been posted to the UN webpage devoted to Timor – Leste. Or to the official website of the Government of Timor -Leste. Or to the official website of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor, the investigative body with the responsibility for drafting the report. (Whose website hasn’t been updated in nearly four years, anyway.)

(Quick aside: Established in July 2001 under the auspices of the UN’s Transitional Administrator for East Timor (the late) Sergio Vieira de Mello (UNTAET/REG/2001/10) with a mandate to document all human rights violations “committed within the context of the political conflicts in East Timor between 25 April 1974 and 25 October 1999,” by which time the occupying power had withdrawn its armed forces, the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CRTR) is not to be confused with the Indonesia – Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) established during a Jakarta-Dili love-fest in March, 2005. This latter body may serve some positive purpose—in particular, on behalf of the people whom it employs. Otherwise, its mandate prohibits referral to any kind of judicial body. Worse, the disturbing rapprochement these past few years, now extending to the personal level, between Dili’s political leadership and Jakarta’s, is enough to give anybody the creeps.

After all, this is the former Commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces (Ret.) General Wiranto (wearing the reddish-brown shirt) with whom Timor – Leste President Xanana Gusmao is shown shaking hands and embracing. Something strikes me as terribly wrong here. In short: The work of the CTF ought to be regarded not only as highly suspect. But the work of the CTF ought to be regarded as a kind of decoy to lure people away from the more serious work of the CRTR.)

Above all, no discussion of the Commission’s report has yet to be instigated within the major American and British print media. (With the notable exception of the single item in the January 21 Washington Post, mentioned earlier.)

The silence with which the governments of Timor – Leste, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States would prefer the rest of the world to greet the 2000-page report of the Commission largely has been fulfilled, it appears. At least outside politically active circles in Dili, Jakarta, and Canberra. Wire services, as well as the Australian and presumably Indonesian news media have been covering it. But none of this has seeped into the American (or “Western”) print media. Although the Washington Post reports that a “U.N. panel last spring recommend the Security Council set up an international war crimes tribunal if the two governments declined to do it,” there is no reason to believe that this ever will happen. Neither Dili nor Jakarta want the Commission’s findings to go a step further. Indeed. Jakarta simply denies the findings. (End of story.) While in the figure of Xanana Gusmao, Mari bim Alkatiri, Jose Ramos-Horta, and Jose Luis Guterres—the President, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, and the UN Ambassador, respectively—Dili resists any mention of the option. Although I think we should sympathize with the precarious situation in which the people of Timor – Leste find themselves. And respect their wishes, ultimately. I for one see no reason not to regret the lack of a serious judicial follow-through on the work of the Commission, either. Nor to be anything less than suspicious about the course that Dili seems to be steering.

Equally important, neither Washington nor any of the other principals of world order want Timor – Leste’s legitimate complaints about the foreign marauders who ravaged their tiny living space for the last quarter of the 20th Century to go one step further.

Perhaps most revealing, we are not hearing the usual plaintiff cries on behalf of the long-suffering people of Timor – Leste (as well as West Papua) like we’ve grown accustomed to hear about some of the other killing fields around the world. Along with the requisite shrieks about “genocide,” “crimes against humanity,” the “crimes of war,” “ethnic cleansing”—and, last but not least, “justice.”

Strange. Isn’t it? But until this past week, I had not known that the wishes of Dili to bury the past and let bygones be bygones exercised this great an influence over the agenda of the Human Rights Brigades.

No less revealing, Associated Press reported last week (Jan. 20) that “The United States donated $11 million worth of hospital equipment to the Indonesian armed forces Friday in the first major military exchange since the lifting of an arms embargo last year.”

Washington “froze military relations in 1999 over Indonesia’s role in the violence surrounding East Timor’s vote for independence in a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite,” AP explained. But Washington lifted its “embargo on military relations in November last year citing Indonesia’s cooperation in the war against Islamist violence.”

Of course, the “war against Islamist violence” means the so-called War on Terror—itself, a kind of successor system of propaganda for the age-old war of the North against the South. The Rich against the Poor.

In the words of the American Ambassador to Jakarta, Lynn Pascoe, “The United States values its partnership with Indonesia and appreciates the vital role the nation plays in the security, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region.”

It can only be with the profoundest regret that this “partnership” now extends to the vital role that the New Timor – Leste also plays in the very same architecture of security, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

So. In closing, I’d like to leave everyone with a question. These days, what do you suppose is really going on in Timor – Leste?

Timor – Leste (Official Government Homepage)
Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (Homepage)
Timor – Leste (Homepage), UN News Focus Series
“Press Conference by President of Timor-Leste,” UN Department of Public Information, January 20, 2006
“Timorese President presents human rights report to Annan,” UN News Center, January 20, 2006
“Annan’s envoy to Timor-Leste calls for international aid after UN’s May deadline,” UN News Center, January 23, 2006

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (Homepage)

“Joseph Nevins: A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor,” Maire Leadbeater, New Zealand Herald, January 13, 2006
“Indonesia’s stature rises,” Tom McCawley, Christian Science Monitor, January 17, 2006
“UN verdict on East Timor – Indonesia blamed for deaths of 180,000 civilians,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 19, 2006
“Leaders favour silence on horrors with Indonesia,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 19, 2006
“Forced march ended in massacre,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 19, 2006
“Save our souls, plead West Papuans,” Ian Gerard, The Australian, January 19, 2006
“UN report says Indonesia killed 180,000 in E.Timor,” Reuters, January 19, 2006
“Whitlam condemned for approval of 1975 invasion,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 20, 2006
“Kopassus claims cloud war games,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 20, 2006
“Focus on the Future,” Editorial, The Australian, January 20, 2006
“East Timor death toll ‘was 183,000’,” The Independent, January 20, 2006
“Indonesia killed 180,000 East Timorese, says report,” Irish Times, January 20, 2006 [See below]
“Indonesia shrugs off E Timor killings,” Morning Star, January 20, 2006 [See below]
“Timor’s full horror revealed,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 21, 2006
“Asylum seekers’ genocide claims not so far-fetched,” Greg Poulgrain, Courier Mail, January 21, 2006 [See below]
“E. Timor Atrocities Detailed; At Least 100,000 Died, Report to U.N. Says,” Colum Lynch and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, January 21, 2006
“E. Timor bribery claims ignored,” Jim Dickins, Sunday Telegraph, January 22, 2006 [See below]
“Timor abuse tabled,” Sunday Telegraph, January 22, 2006 [See below]
“Jakarta dropped napalm on Timor,” Sian Powell, The Australian, January 23, 2006

“Timor – Leste,” ZNet, January 23, 2006

Postscript (January 24): Today, the invaluable National Security Archive posted a new webpage that provides links to at least one major section of Chega! (“Enough!”), the final report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor. First delivered to the Government of Timor – Leste as far back as last October—though god only knows how many earlier drafts of the massive 2000-page report circulated prior to this—the final draft was not formally turned over to the UN Secretary-General until last Friday, January 20. More important, as the researchers at the National Security Archive point out, the NSA has been compelled to post to its website whatever excerpts from the complete report that it has been able to find because “East Timor’s government has not yet put the full text of the truth commission report in the public domain or published its contents online, despite having delivered the report to the Timorese parliament in November and to the United Nations….”

And so to repeat the question with which I closed this blog yesterday: Why have neither the Government of Timor – Leste, nor the principals behind the Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation, nor, lastly, an organ of the United Nations endeavored to circulate this report in the public domain?

I mean, what is really going on in Timor – Leste these days?

“East Timor truth commission finds U.S. ‘political and military support were fundamental to the Indonesian invasion and occupation’,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 176, as posted January 24, 2006
“Responsibility and Accountability,” Ch. 8, Chega!, Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (as posted to the National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 176, January 24, 2006)
“A Quarter Century of U.S. Support for Occupation,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 174, as posted November 28, 2005

By the way, through today, here is the totality of what the New York Times has reported about issues related to Timor – Leste since The Australian first began reporting the Commission’s findings six days ago (“East Timor: President Seeks Continued U.N. Support,” Jan. 24):

President Xanana Gusmao asked the Security Council to create an office to advise on elections and policing after the United Nations ends its six-year mission in the island nation in May. He also discussed the results of a three-year independent investigation that said that up to 183,000 people were killed during the 24-year occupation by Indonesia.

Yes. A 56-word World Briefing. (Evidently, The Times is still figuring out some way to allow the principals behind the policy to plausibly deny there ever was a Santa Claus. Or something like this.)

FYA (“For your archives”): Am reproducing here several items for which weblinks do not appear to be available. Notice that they do not derive from the U.S. print media. Sincerest apologies for not being able to reproduce more.

AAP Newsfeed
January 19, 2006 Thursday 7:34 PM AEST
HEADLINE: Fed: Report details Indonesia’s bloody occupation of Timor
BYLINE: Saffron Howden
DATELINE: CANBERRA Jan 19

Australia’s place in East Timor’s bloody history will come under renewed scrutiny as a landmark report detailing Indonesia’s 25-year occupation of the tiny state makes its way to the United Nations.
The report, which finds that up to 183,000 East Timorese died during the occupation, also includes a recommendation the international community take responsibility for failing to take action against Indonesia.
East Timor’s truth and reconciliation commission has been collecting evidence from thousands of witnesses for the past three years about Indonesia’s annexing of the former Portuguese colony.
Its final report is expected to be delivered personally to the UN in New York tomorrow by East Timor president Xanana Gusmao.
The report details a quarter of a century of brutality by the Indonesian military.
One academic who helped draft the report says the East Timorese people were in the grip of a continuing famine for the duration of the occupation.
She would not say how many died, but it is thought up to 183,000 East Timorese were killed, disappeared, starved or died of illnesses linked to Indonesia’s actions.
The academic, who did not want to be named, said napalm was dropped on people in jungle areas.
“I can confirm that the Indonesian military had … napalm and that it was dropped from planes in the mountainous areas of Timor,” she said.
Speaking from the East Timor capital Dili, she said the evidence collected by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation through interviews with more than 9,000 witnesses was “incontrovertible”.
“The recommendations of the report are extremely important because there are still thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Timorese who need justice.”
The commission recommended the international community, and in particular Australia, the US, Portugal, and the UN, take responsibility for sanctioning the invasion.
“There’s a clear opportunity for the international community to rectify and right some of the problems that still remain,” she said.
“I think a number of other countries obviously bear responsibility for the situation.
“Certainly the US government, the Australian government, the Portuguese government, and the UN security council and the UN generally, did not respond to the situation as it was occurring in East Timor … (and) there’s a reflection of that in the report.”
East Timorese parliamentarians have been pouring over the 2,500 page document since November, but it is understood Mr Gusmao is not happy with all of the commission’s recommendations.
Since finally achieving independence in 1999, East Timor has been reluctant to get the international community, including Indonesia, offside.
East Timor’s ambassador to the United Nations Jose Luis Guterres today played down the contents of the truth and reconciliation report.
His government was unlikely to pursue legal action against Indonesia or particular military officers, he said.
“I don’t believe that the government of East Timor will try to prosecute any of the military figures in Indonesia because of the past human rights violations in East Timor,” Mr Guterres told ABC Radio.
“This is not a new issue for us, it’s not new.”
Indonesia invaded East Timor in December, 1975.
In 1979, Australia became the first country to officially recognise its incorporation into the archipelago.
Documents that have since come to light show Australian officials knew well in advance of plans to invade and did nothing to stop it.
Now, East Timor’s roughly 930,000 citizens are poverty-stricken.
According to Oxfam Australia, only 60 per cent of East Timorese people can read and write, life expectancy is just 57 years, and more than one in 10 babies are likely to die before the age of five.

AAP Newsfeed
January 19, 2006 Thursday 9:50 AM AEST
HEADLINE: Fed: East Timor unlikely to seek prosecution of Indon military
DATELINE: CANBERRA Jan 19

East Timor’s ambassador to the United Nations says his country is unlikely to seek the prosecution of Indonesian military officers accused of widespread human rights abuses in a UN report.
A leaked copy of the report, by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, includes claims the Indonesian government and military were responsible for the deaths of up to 180,000 East Timorese during a 24-year occupation of the former Portuguese colony.
The report, to be handed to the UN by East Timor President Xanana Gusmao tomorrow, also says the Indonesian military tried to starve the East Timorese, and poisoned food and water supplies with napalm and other chemicals.
Speaking from New York, East Timor’s ambassador to the United Nations Jose Luis Guterres today said the contents of the report were not surprising.
But he said the East Timorese government was unlikely to take the matter further.
“I don’t believe that the government of East Timor will try to prosecute any of the military figures in Indonesia because of the past human rights violations in East Timor,” Mr Guterres told ABC radio.
“This is not a new issue for us, it’s not new.”
He said East Timor hoped to continue good relations with Indonesia.
The report criticises Australia for recognising the Indonesian occupation of the tiny country and for failing to try to prevent the use of force there.
However, Mr Guterres was reluctant to offer any criticism.
“Even if Australia opposed the Indonesian invasion, whether Indonesia invaded or not – these are questions for academics to discuss,” he said.
“But the reality is many of our friends in Australia support always the East Timor cause.”

Agence France Presse — English
January 19, 2006 Thursday 7:44 AM GMT
HEADLINE: Report documents Indonesian atrocities in East Timor
DATELINE: SYDNEY, Jan 19 2006

The Indonesia military used starvation and sexual violence as weapons to control East Timor during a 24-year occupation of the province that caused the deaths of up to 180,000 civilians, according to a report cited Thursday by The Australian newspaper.

The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the 2,500-page report by the East Timorese Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, which is due to be handed to the United Nations by East Timor President Xanana Gusmao on Friday.

The report detailed how Indonesian soldiers used napalm and chemical weapons to poison food and water supplies during their 1975 invasion of the territory, a former Portuguese colony with an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population.

The report, based on interviews with almost 8,000 witnesses as well as Indonesian military papers and intelligence from international sources, detailed thousands of summary executions and the torture of 8,500 people, The Australian said.

Atrocities included the burying and burning alive of victims and the cutting off of ears and genitals to display to families, the paper said.

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

“Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters,” the commission was quoted as saying.

The commission claimed the policies of Indonesia’s military against East Timor’s civilian population caused the deaths of between 84,000 and 183,000 people — up to a third of the territory’s population — between 1975 and 1999.

More than 90 percent of the deaths were due to hunger and illness, it said.

The Indonesian security forces “consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war”, the report says.

“The intentional imposition of conditions of life which could not sustain tens of thousands of East Timorese civilians amounted to extermination as a crime against humanity committed against the East Timorese population,” it said.

Of 18,600 unlawful killings or disappearances reported in East Timor during the occupation, Indonesian police or soldiers were to blame for 70 percent of the deaths, it said.

The report was described by The Australian as a UN document.

But the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation is an independent body set up by former East Timor resistants and human rights groups, and its website makes no mention of any UN role in the drafting of the report.

The commission submitted its report to the government months ago, but Gusmao, the former Fretilin leader, wanted to keep it secret for fear of irritating Indonesia.

But he then relented and will hand the report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York on Friday.

“The report has sparked heated debate at home and abroad. By making it public, I hope all parties have a clear understanding of its contents and recommendations,” Gusmao said in a press release dated Tuesday.

There are fears release of the report could inflame tensions with Indonesia and militia groups that are still active near the East Timor border.

But East Timor’s ambassador to the UN, Jose Luis Guterres, played down the likely impact, saying much of what is in the report was known and should not harm the good relations between his government and Indonesia.

“I don’t believe that the government of East Timor will try to prosecute any of the military figures in Indonesia because of the past human rights violations in East Timor,” Guterres said on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio from New York.

Indonesia annexed East Timor with the acquiescence of major powers, including neighboring Australia, but the brutality of the occupation turned world opinion against Jakarta and led to a vote for independence in 1999.

The vote sparked bloody reprisals by Indonesian-backed militia groups who killed hundreds of people before an international force led by Australian troops restored order.

East Timor finally became independent in May 2002 and remains Asia’s poorest country.

Associated Press Worldstream
January 19, 2006 Thursday 11:49 AM GMT
HEADLINE: Indonesia says no need to probe 183,000 deaths during its occupation of East Timor
DATELINE: JAKARTA Indonesia

Indonesia dismissed an internationally funded report that found up to 183,000 people were killed during its occupation of East Timor, saying it was time to “look to the future.”

East Timor’s President Xanana Gusmao is due to hand the 2,500-page report, compiled by members of a national commission over a two-year period, to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on Friday.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and ruled the tiny half-island territory with an iron fist until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence.

The report which has yet to be released to the public found up to 183,000 people were killed, disappeared, starved or died of illnesses linked to the 24-year conflict, according to Pat Walsh, an adviser to the investigating commission.

Indonesia and East Timor have repeatedly said they don’t want to open old wounds.

It is time “to look to the future,” Indonesia’s State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Thursday when asked to comment on the report.

“We have agreed to cooperate for reconciliation and for solving our problems, therefore there is no need to look into the past because that does not help,” he said.

“If we want to be fair and honest, Western countries also colonized Asia and Africa in an even worse manner.”

Indonesian courts have charged 18 people, most of them police and military officers, over violence that accompanied the break from Jakarta’s rule. None has been punished.

Human rights groups want the United Nations to oversee an international tribunal for East Timor like those in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The issue is complicated because East Timor’s government says it is no longer interested in pursuing war crimes cases, saying it is more interested in improving ties with its giant neighbor.

That has sparked criticism from human rights groups who say victims of the atrocities deserve justice.

The report says Indonesian security forces or their militia were responsible for 70 percent of the more than 100,000 East Timorese who were killed or disappeared under Jakarta rule, according to Walsh.

“We know that the views of our president and our government are not very popular with some people in our country and international community,” Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said this week.

“They say we are putting too much emphasis on reconciliation and not enough on justice,” he said.

“Well, this may be so, but the reality is that in dealing with issue of justice we have to bear in mind the need to create peace and stability in East Timor.”

Among the recommendations made by the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission report were that Indonesian troops involved in the bloodshed be prosecuted.

It also says international arms suppliers and nations that supported Indonesia’s violent invasion in 1975 compensate victims.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
January 19, 2006, Thursday
HEADLINE: UN report: A third of East Timorese died under Indonesian rule
DATELINE: Sydney

Almost a third of East Timor’s population perished in the violence and famine that followed Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of the former Portuguese colony, a long-suppressed United Nations report claims.

Excerpts from a leaked copy of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation report published Thursday in The Australian newspaper put the death toll during the 24-year occupation of East Timor at up to 180,000.

East Timor, south-east Asia’s poorest country, became independent in 2002 after three years of UN stewardship and following a 1999 referendum supervised by the UN.

The report has been suppressed by the East Timorese government for three months out of fear of enraging a giant neighbour that is still smarting at the loss of half of Timor island following the 1999 referendum.

A single soldier has been punished for the human rights atrocities perpetrated in East Timor by the tribunal Jakarta set up to investigate the conduct of its military.

The 2,500-page report found that Jakarta “consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war” and that “widespread and systematic executions, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and sexual slavery was officially accepted by Indonesia.”

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, the former guerrilla leader that Jakarta jailed for six years, is to hand the report to UN Secretary General Kofi Anan later this week. Gusmao has also promised to hand deliver a copy of the report to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Yudhoyono, a retired general, served two tours of duty as a senior military officer in East Timor between the 1975 invasion and the ignominious exit of Indonesian troops in 1999.

The report is particularly critical of Australia, the only Western country to grant de jure recognition of Indonesian occupation. Australia, partly out of embarrassment for its previous policies, organised and led an international force that, with Jakarta’s permission, entered its immediate northern neighbour in 1999 to quell violence by pro-Jakarta militias angry at the outcome of the positive independence referendum.

Gusmao has been party to the suppression of the report, as befits his longstanding view that there is nothing to be gained by a nation of 1 million publicly embarrassing a neighbour with a population of 240 million.

That view was echoed by Jose Luis Guterres, East Timor’s ambassador to the UN, who said “the government and the president have the determination to first consolidate the process of democracy, freedom and justice in East Timor, second to maintain good relations with Indonesia at the same time, also giving the opportunity to the Indonesian system of democracy and freedom to be consolidated in that region.”

Guterres said his government had no interest in prosecutions that might stem from the report. “I don’t believe the government of East Timor will gain trying to prosecute any of the military figures in Indonesia because of these past human rights – unless you want isolation in East Timor,” he told Australia’s ABC Radio.

Japan Economic Newswire
January 19, 2006 Thursday 9:25 AM GMT
HEADLINE: U.N. report on E. Timor details Indonesian abuses
DATELINE: SYDNEY Jan. 19

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao will hand a report to the United Nations on Friday detailing abuses during 24 years of Indonesian occupation, which led to the deaths of 180,000 civilians, an Australian newspaper reported Thursday.

Napalm and chemical weapons, which poisoned the food and water supply, were used by Indonesian soldiers against the East Timorese in the brutal invasion and annexation of the half-island to Australia’s north, according to the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation report, the Australian reported.

The report found that after taking into account a peacetime baseline mortality rate, the number of East Timorese whose deaths could be directly attributed to Indonesia’s deliberate starvation policy was between 84,200 and 183,000 people from 1975 until 1999, according to the paper.

Indonesian police and soldiers are also said to be blamed for 70 percent of the 18,600 unlawful killings or disappearances between those years.

As many as 1,500 East Timorese people were said to be killed by the Indonesian military and its militia proxies in 1999 in reprisal attacks for the East Timor independence vote.

The commission found that, “Widespread and systematic executions, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and sexual slavery was officially accepted by Indonesia,” the Australian reported.

“The violations were committed in execution of a systematic plan approved, conducted and controlled by Indonesian military commanders at the highest level,” the document reportedly said.

Based on interviews with almost 8,000 East Timorese witnesses and refugees in West Timor, the report uses Indonesian military papers and intelligence from international sources as well, the newspaper said.

Australia is also criticized in the document for recognizing the Indonesian occupation and failing to try to prevent the use of force in East Timor, the newspaper said.

Sponsored by international donors, the report, which took three and half years to compile, was given to Gusmao in October, but will only be released Friday.

Gusmao was concerned the report will offend Indonesia and that information about the resistance movement, which also summarily executed and tortured civilians, will cause unrest, the Australian said.

In a statement released earlier this week, Gusmao said the report has “created healthy debate among the national and international community,” and will enhance understanding of the recent history of East Timor.

East Timor Ambassador to the United Nations Jose Luis Guterres told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Thursday that he did not believe his government will try to prosecute any Indonesian military as a result of the release of the report.

“The government has the present determination to, first, to consolidate the process of democracy, freedom and justice in East Timor,” he said.

“Second, to maintain the good relations with Indonesia. At the same time, also giving the opportunity to the Indonesian system of democracy and freedom to be consolidated in that region,” he said.

All but one of the military personnel accused at the earlier Indonesian tribunal on East Timor were acquitted or found innocent on appeal, the Australian reported.

Gusmao will on Friday hand the report to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York. Next week he will travel to Indonesia to also hand a copy of the report to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

East Timor split from Indonesia through the U.N.-organized referendum on Aug. 30, 1999, and became fully independent May 20, 2002, after a U.N.-led transition period.

The Irish Times
January 20, 2006 Friday
SECTION: WORLD; Other World Stories; Pg. 12
HEADLINE: Indonesia killed 180,000 East Timorese, says report

EAST TIMOR: Indonesia killed up to 180,000 East Timorese through massacres, torture and starvation during its 24-year occupation, a report to be handed to the United Nations has found, an Australian daily said yesterday.

Napalm and chemical weapons were used to poison food and water and some victims were burned or buried while still alive, and others sexually mutilated, the Australian newspaper quoted the report as saying.

It said 90 per cent of the 180,000 deaths – almost a third of the pre-invasion population – were caused by starvation and disease, saying starvation was used as a weapon.

“Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters,” the paper quoted the report as saying.

The Australian said the study was a United Nations document, but it was prepared by East Timor’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.

The 2,500-page report is based on interviews with 8,000 Timorese, refugees in Indonesia’s West Timor, Indonesian military papers and foreign intelligence sources. “Widespread and systemic executions, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and sexual slavery was officially accepted by Indonesia,” the study said.

“The violations were committed in execution of a systematic plan approved, conducted and controlled by Indonesian military commanders at the highest level.” Indonesian state secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said yesterday that East Timor and Indonesia had already agreed to work together for reconciliation and solving problems.

“Therefore, there is no need to look at the past because it won’t help. . . Better to look at the future,” he told reporters when asked about the report. “If we want to be fair and honest, western countries had colonised Asia-African countries even worse.”

The report said Indonesian soldiers and police were responsible for about 70 per cent of the 18,600 unlawful killings or disappearances between the invasion in 1975 and a vote for independence in 1999.

The Australian did not say who caused the other 30 per cent, but pro-independence guerrillas fought Indonesian forces throughout the occupation of the former Portuguese colony.

Indonesian forces “consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war”, the paper quoted the report – called Chega! (Enough! in Portuguese) – as saying.

“The intentional imposition of conditions of life which could not sustain tens of thousands of East Timorese civilians amounted to extermination as a crime against humanity.” The East Timor government has yet to release the report, which it received in October, but is expected to hand it to UN secretary general Kofi Annan this week, the Australian said.

The report recommends reparations by Indonesia, and countries that provided backing for its military during the years of occupation, including Australia, Britain and the United States.

Morning Star
January 20, 2006
HEADLINE: World – Indonesia shrugs off E Timor killings;

Indonesia dismissed an internationally funded report yesterday which found that up to 183,000 people had been killed during its occupation of East Timor, asserting that it was time to “look to the future.”

East Timor’s President Xanana Gusmao is due to hand the 2,500-page report, which was compiled by the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission over a two-year period, to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in New York today.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and ruled the tiny half-island territory with an iron fist until 1999, when a UN-organised plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence.

The report found that up to 183,000 people had been killed, disappeared, starved or died of illnesses linked to the 24-year conflict, according to commission adviser Pat Walsh.

It is time “to look to the future,” Indonesia’s State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra claimed yesterday.

“We have agreed to co-operate for reconciliation and for solving our problems.

“Therefore, there is no need to look into the past, because that does not help,” he said.

“If we want to be fair and honest, Western countries also colonised Asia and Africa in an even worse manner.”

Indonesian courts have charged 18 people, most of them police and military officers, in connection with a killing spree that accompanied the break from Jakarta’s rule. None has been punished.

Human rights groups want the UN to oversee an international tribunal for East Timor like those for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia.

The issue is complicated because East Timor’s government no longer wants to pursue war crimes cases, saying that it is more interested in improving ties with Jakarta.

That has sparked criticism from human rights groups, who say that victims of the atrocities deserve justice.

The report finds that Indonesian security forces or their militia were responsible for 70 per cent of the more than 100,000 East Timorese who were killed or disappeared under Jakarta’s rule, according to Mr Walsh.

“We know that the views of our president and our government are not very popular with some people in our country and the international community,” East Timor’s Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta acknowledged this week.

“They say we are putting too much emphasis on reconciliation and not enough on justice,” he said.

Among the recommendations made by the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission report were that Indonesian troops involved in the bloodshed be prosecuted.

It also says that international arms suppliers and countries that supported Indonesia’s invasion in 1975 should compensate the victims.

COURIER MAIL
January 21, 2006 Saturday
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 31
HEADLINE: Asylum seekers’ genocide claims not so far-fetched
BYLINE: Greg Poulgrain

THE word ”genocide” in the Papuan asylum seekers’ banner, when they landed by boat on Australia’s northern shoreline several days ago, was not something Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry in Jakarta was keen to discuss.

Indeed, the Indonesians quickly denied any such genocide.

Canberra also was quick to deny the Papuans — 36 adults and six children — a chance to explain why they had fled their homeland.

If the asylum seekers now on Christmas Island are returned to West Papua or sent to Papua New Guinea, is this because genocide is not occurring in Papua? Or is the Christmas Island solution simply ”out of sight, out of mind”, to keep the asylum seekers out of range of the Australian public?

Human rights abuse has occurred in Papua since the Indonesian army arrived in 1963, and the US State Department’s annual report last year drew attention to the murder, torture and rape perpetrated by the Indonesian army on the Papuan population.

However, human rights abuse is not genocide as defined in UN terms — the crucial part of which centres on the intent to destroy.

What is happening in this forgotten western half of the island of New Guinea? Given our proximity to the scene of the alleged crime of genocide, is Australia implicated or do we simply plead ignorance?

This part of Indonesia is so close to Australia it’s the equivalent of Brisbane residents not knowing about the possibility of genocide in Maryborough.

The desperation of the West Papuan people to end their nightmare under Indonesian military rule is seen in their desperate efforts to reach Australia. They know the danger of having their names on a death list in Papua; and they know the danger of travelling in an open boat in the monsoon season.

When a boatload of Afghan refugees set out from West Papua the same year as the Tampa, in 2001, they were turned back without reaching either the shoreline or the media in Australia.

Australians are so well protected from hearing news about this Indonesian province that the desperation of the Papuan people there rarely reaches us in Australia, unless it arrives by canoe.

Papuan desperation derives from being on the verge of independence four decades ago, when Dutch colonial rule ended, only to be overrun by an army based in faraway Jakarta.

Traditional land in Papua became a patchwork of concessions held by timber companies often linked to the Indonesian army. Gold, copper, oil and gas attracted foreign mining companies but without tangible improvement in health and education for the Papuan people.

Statistics on infant mortality show Papua among the worst in the world.

Disease and starvation have probably been the biggest killers in Papua during the past four decades. According to a UN report this week on the death toll in East Timor, during the two decades of Indonesian military occupation starvation was used as a means of exterminating the population. In Papua, too, this has occurred.

In 1983, after visiting Papua (then Irian Jaya), I prepared a report for the Anti-Slavery Society.

The Asmat area in Papua, just along the coast from Merauke where the asylum-seekers set off for Australia, was pristine and disease-free half a century ago.

But when the Indonesian army arrived in the late 1970s, demanding unpaid labour in the lucrative timber-felling in this region, the death rate for the under-five age group soared to 600 per 1000.

This is genocide.

And when the Australian army sent assistance to Papua in 1996-97 when there was severe drought there, they realised that the main reason thousands were dying, according to a Red Cross official, was because many Papuan food gardens had been destroyed deliberately by the Indonesians.

In 2004, when the Indonesian army conducted large-scale operations in the highlands, 10,000 West Papuans fled into the bush where they remained for six months. Infants and the elderly died.

The army refused the Red Cross and even the UN mission’s access to these people.

Because the names of Papuans who do organise assistance are targeted by the army, seeking refuge in nearby Australia is sometimes the only way left to publicise their plight. Sometimes the only way to stay alive is to seek asylum.

When the Papuan leader, Theys Eluay, was abducted and murdered in 2001 by elite troops, the perpetrators instead of being punished were called ”heroic” by Indonesian Army Chief of Staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu.

The American report published two years ago by Yale University also used the term ”genocide” to describe what is happening there.

When estimating the number of deaths that have occurred, the Papuan human rights group Elsham has publicised the figure of 100,000.

But the director at that time, John Rumbiak, explained that this was a conservative figure backed up by names and addresses of the deceased, but that many more persons had simply disappeared or died from disease as the result of the oppressive army presence over four decades.

If we compare the population of neighbouring PNG 50 years ago with that of the Indonesian-controlled western half of the island, and compare both today, it is obvious that West Papua has been seriously depopulated.

There are different factors of growth but a general comparison of people of similar culture reveals a startling discrepancy.

The population of PNG today is 5.5 million. The Papuan population in the Indonesian half is about 1.8 million inhabitants but should be more like 3.4 million.

Non-Papuan transmigrants have arrived from Java and Sulawesi but the actual Papuan population has been seriously depleted.

The deliberacy and intent underlying the population deficit predicates the accusation of genocide.

When asylum seekers from Papua are interviewed by Australian Immigration Department officials on Christmas Island, the ghastly possibility that genocide is occurring in their homeland — as the banner on the boat claimed — should not be ignored.

Greg Poulgrain is a Brisbane-based academic and expert on Indonesia

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
January 22, 2006 Sunday
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 16
HEADLINE: E Timor bribery claims ignored
BYLINE: JIM DICKINS

POLICE failed to investigate allegations an Australian public servant passed massive bribes to East Timor’s Prime Minister.

Documents lodged with a United States court claim an Australian acted as the bagman in a conspiracy involving US energy giant ConocoPhillips.

Bribery of foreign officials is a criminal offence punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.

But Australian Federal Police admitted to a delegation from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development they never investigated the case.

A statement of claim lodged with US District Court last year alleges East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri accepted more than $3 million from ConocoPhillips in 2002, paid by the Australian public servant acting as an intermediary.

The deal allegedly allowed ConocoPhillips, one of the world’s biggest fuel refiners, and Australia to retain favourable concessions over Timor Sea gas reserves negotiated during Indonesia’s violent occupation.

Mr Alkatiri has strenuously denied accepting the money and threatened to sue for defamation.

The statement of claim was lodged on behalf of another US energy company, Oceanic Exploration, which lost a lucrative claim on the reserves after Indonesia’s 1975 invasion.

It included details of Darwin bank accounts allegedly held by Mr Alkatiri and bribe amounts supposedly deposited there.

Oceanic was pursuing ConocoPhillips for billions in compensation until its case was struck out of court earlier this year.

The AFP said it would normally pursue reports of alleged bribery, if combined with supporting information, but it did not do so in this case because it would have been ”inefficient”.

In a report released last week, the OECD said the omission was concerning.

As well as contravening the Commonwealth Criminal Code, bribery of foreign officials breaches Department of Foreign Affairs guidelines for diplomats.

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
January 22, 2006 Sunday
SECTION: WORLD; Pg. 47
HEADLINE: Timor abuse tabled

NEW YORK: East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has presented UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a long-awaited report that blames the Indonesian occupation for killing about 10per cent of the territory’s population.

The 2000-page report into Indonesia’s 24-year occupation of Timor, compiled by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), established that at least 102,800 Timorese died as a result of the occupation.

The report blames the deaths, most of them from hunger and illness, on the policies of Indonesia’s military towards East Timor’s civilian population.

The Indonesian security forces ”consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war”, it says.

The report is the fruit of more than three years of intensive work, during which more than 7000 victims testified on human rights violations committed in East Timor between April 1974 and October 1999.

Speaking to reporters after his talks with Mr Annan yesterday, President Gusmao said the main objective of the report was to establish the truth of what happened and to ensure action from the international community to prevent it happening again.

”We accept the results of the report as a way to heal the wounds,” Mr Gusmao said.

”The figures (of casualties) can be disputed. But it is not so important to look at the figures. It is more important to look at the lessons.

”We don’t advocate punitive justice but restorative justice.”

Mr Gusmao cited as a model South Africa, where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the brutal excesses of apartheid and for the first time gave the country’s mainly black victims a voice.

CAVR had submitted its report to the East Timorese Government months ago, but Mr Gusmao kept it secret until now for fear of irritating Indonesia, its powerful neighbour.

Indonesia annexed East Timor with the tacit approval of major powers but the brutality of the occupation turned world opinion against Jakarta and led to a vote for independence in 1999.

The vote sparked bloody reprisals by Indonesian-backed militia groups who killed hundreds of people before an international force restored order.

East Timor became independent in 2002 and remains Asia’s poorest country.

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