Jailed East Timorese Resistance leader Xanana Gusmao said today that claims made by Indonesia of a large troop reduction in East Timor are false. He said 3,500 new Indonesian troops have been brought in the troubled territory, secretly, to replace the ones that left last month. The Resistance leader added that human rights abuses in the former Portuguese enclave continued unabated.

In a paper written for the conference entitled "Indonesia after Suharto", organised by the New Zealand Asia Institute of the University of Auckland, Xanana – the president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) – said there was still fighting in his country, East Timor, alongside repression and torture.

"The people have no peace – of body, far less of spirit. Not an inch of ground has been yielded by the Indonesians, not a single tangible concession," said Xanana in his paper read by East Timorese Virgilio Guterres da Silva to the Auckland conference.

In August journalists were flown to the East Timor capital, Dili, at Indonesian government expense to watch and film, what Jakarta claimed as, 1,000 Indonesian troops boarding ships to return home to Indonesia. On the day of the withdrawal, however, the number to leave had dropped to 396. Later Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas announced this was the beginning of a large troop reduction program.

"This is a false claim which is completely in line with similar false claims that have been made by Indonesia since 1980. The truth is this. Since the filming of this thousand strong troop withdrawal, a total of 3,500 troops have taken their place.

"No cameramen were invited to watch their arrival, for they landed at secret army jetties at Viqueque, Com and Carabelo, near Vemasse," said Xanana.

Xanana is serving a 20-year jail sentence in Jakarta's Cipinang Prison for conspiring against the Indonesian state. His paper for the Auckland conference was distributed internationally by the Darwin-based East Timor International Support Center.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975 and annexed the territory a year later in a move never recognised by the United Nations. Over 200,000 East Timorese, mostly civilians, women and children, lost their lives in the months following the December 7, 1975 invasion.

Jakarta has said it was only willing to free Xanana, 52, as part of an acceptable solution in East Timor. It has also offered to grant autonomy to the troubled territory in return for international recognition of Indonesian sovereignty. Xanana has insisted Indonesia must allow self-determination referendum in East Timor.

"There can be no genuine solution to the East Timor problem without a referendum. We demand this right of ours – a right denied to us for 23 years and ignored by the world – and we demand it vigorously. We will not be put off with compromises such as autonomy," said Xanana in his conference paper.

"If Indonesia does withdraw, as they are legally obliged to, then a referendum is in fact unnecessary. But let us hold a referendum, in order to show the world and particularly the Indonesians the strength of our unity, and the intensity of our desire to be East Timorese," added the CNRT president.

In a separate paper also read by Virgilio Guterres, on behalf of ETISC, it was put to the Auckland conference that autonomy, as a pre-referendum interim stage, was open to manipulation by Indonesia.

"There has been talk by people of varying persuasions about the possibility of implementing an interim period of autonomy lasting two or five or ten years, as a forerunner to a referendum. "Such a period of years would hand to Indonesia an opportunity to use its considerable power to influence the people of East Timor to vote at the referendum in favour of a continuing association with Indonesia, whilst those who favour ultimate independence do not have the same power to sway opinions," said the ETISC paper. ETISC also called for more parties, namely the various organs of the United Nations and Australia, US and the European Union, to be involved in the negotiating process for a referendum.

"If a referendum is the starting point for the negotiating process, the end point should be equally definable. For 23 years the East Timor issue has involved primarily Portugal, Indonesia and the East Timorese.

"However, others such as several organs of the United Nations – General Assembly, Security Council, and the Commission of Human Rights – as well as entities, such as Australia, the United States and the European Union, have also exercised a vital interest and involvement. For this reason it would be wrong to regard the settlement of this issue as one which involved only Indonesia and Portugal."

[On September 12 the state news agency Antara said that ABRI has denied that it replaced the combat troops it had withdrawn from East Timor. In a statement ABRI said it had only sent a very small number of military personnel involved in medical and morale-building tasks, to support non-combat troops in the province - James Balowski.]