James Dunn – Timor watchers would have detected a touch of irony in a news item from Jakarta earlier this week. In a bizarre announcement Colonel Slamet Sidabutar, the East Timor district military commander, alleged that an unnamed Australian had been in Indonesia teaching Timorese rebels the art of making home-made bombs, which were to be used to wreak destruction in the provincial capital, Dili.

By coincidence this week marks 22 years since five newsmen from Australia, in an even more bizarre announcement, were accused by the Indonesian military of supporting the forces of Fretilin, then in control of the former Portuguese colony.

It was, of course, an outrageous lie, for in reality the journalists took great care to preserve their non-combatant status. The Indonesia report was a feeble exercise in disinformation, designed to cover up the circumstances in which they were killed at Balibo, in a covert Indonesian Special Forces operation conducted at a time when Jakarta was insisting that its forces were not involved in East Timor.

Over the years the anniversary of the killing of the Balibo Five has come to symbolise more than the loss of five courageous newsmen. In particular, it marked the beginning of a brutal military intervention, which was to cost the lives of more than a quarter of East Timor's population. It also serves to remind us of a shameful episode in Australia's foreign policy, for the invasion was based on the well-founded assumption that Australia's political leaders would go along with Jakarta's annexation of the colony.

Not only did Australia decline to protest against the killing of the newsmen but no Australian Government has ever formally condemned what a gross violation of the UN Charter it was. Some officials have even held up our record on Timor as an example of the merits of quiet diplomacy in relation to human rights.

We have, of course, provided a substantial amount of aid to East Timor, including to the International Red Cross. However, Timorese argue that our aid programs mainly benefit the 150,000 Indonesians who form the new elite of the territory, who drive most of the cars and live in most of the modern housing.

As for quiet diplomacy, Timor exposes the utter frailty of this concept. For the people of this former colony the outcome could not really have been worse. Their population has been decimated, they have been marginalised in their own land and have had imposed on them an infinitely more oppressive form of colonialism than that experienced in the last years of Portuguese rule.

To make matters worse, Australia's quiet diplomacy has for years helped keep the world community quiet about the situation in East Timor.

This year, no thanks to Australia, there is something for the Timorese to celebrate; their plight has become more widely known to an international community, which is placing stronger emphasis on human rights protection.

A number of developments has led to increased international pressure on Indonesia. First, there was the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos Horta, which has opened doors hitherto closed to Timorese leaders. Both spokesmen have helped stimulate an unprecedented interest in the search for a more just settlement to the problem.

Second, the Timorese have been able to benefit from growing international criticisms of the Suharto regime, whether on grounds of corruption or its crushing of Indonesia's democracy movement.

Third, political changes in Britain and France have helped focus greater attention on Timor in the European Union, which, incidentally, has just allocated $3 million to help them.

Fourth, the new UN Secretary General, Dr Kofi Annan, is putting much more effort into the UN's role, under the 1982 General Assembly resolution, than did his predecessor. He has been urging the Portuguese and Indonesia to work out a settlement.

So far this has met with little success. The main obstacle is Indonesia's stubborn refusal to reconsider the self-determination factor, a key element in the UN resolution. Next week there is to be a further meeting in Austria between the leaders of the Timorese factions.

The fact that there has been little improvement in East Timor itself is causing a hardening of world opinion. Most visitors to the province, including a recent EU group, have merely confirmed Timorese resentment at Indonesian rule, especially the military presence. The situation there continues to be the subject of Amnesty International reports, while the highly respected, New York-based Human Rights Watch has just released a detailed report that suggests the situation is deteriorating, with increased violence by Falintil guerrillas as well as the military. Reports of arbitrary arrests and torture continue unabated.

While there are grounds for cautious optimism, the obstacles to real progress remain formidable. The Suharto regime's stubborn resolve is buttressed by strong support in the the region, especially from its ASEAN partners. In relation to the rest of the world, of particular comfort to Jakarta is the supportive stand of Australia, apparently the only western democracy insisting that the status quo should be accepted. But it is high time we considered the cost of this compliance to our sagging international image.

[James Dunn is a former Australian diplomat. He is the author of Timor: A People Betrayed.]