A former Australian diplomat says Australia's Foreign Affairs Department has maintained sensitive files on East Timor. The diplomat says the files showed Australia had prior knowledge of – and agreed with – Indonesia's invasion of East Timor, and, that Foreign Affairs knew years ago that Indonesian soldiers had killed 5 Australian-based journalists.

Bruce Haigh was a diplomat for more than two decades, until 1994, and was in charge of the Indonesia desk in the mid-1980s. Mr Haigh says he was asked to maintain sensitive files about East Timor in his office rather than placing them, as is customary, in the Department's central registry. The former diplomat is talking to Graeme Dobell.

Dobell: Bruce Haigh , what was in these so-called sensitive files?

Haigh: Well there were two files, They existed, They're real enough, one of them related to investigations and other information relating to the deaths of the five journalists, and there were photographs included in that file, and reports as I say and other information which had been pulled together from various sources relating specifically to the deaths of the journalists at Balibo.

Dobell: What did it say about the deaths of the journalists?

Haigh: Well... there was a lot, but from my reading of the file, and I think from any other person's reading of the file, the reasonable conclusion would be drawn that they were murdered. So the reading of the collective papers on those files would lead to the conclusion that they had been murdered. I don't recall there being one single line saying the journalists were murdered, but when you put the information which was on those files together... when you read the file as a whole... that's what emerged.

Dobell: Why were you told that these files were sensitive, to be maintained in your own office and not sent to central registry?

Haigh: Well I inherited them. When I went into the section, the files were there, and they'd been there for some time... well they must have been because I went into the section in late '84, I think there must have been a concern that they needed to be held where they could be watched because they didn't want bits and pieces to be leaked off them. I mean Foreign Affairs was notorious for leaks in those years, and I guess people were concerned that that would happen with the information on these files.

Dobell: What would have been the problem do you think for the Department if they had been leaked or became public?

Haigh: It would have embarrased our relationship with Indonesia with the sort of relationship that they had built up and were seeking to maintain with Indonesia, but now this far down the track it would have been a good thing

Dobell: How do you think these two sensitive files would change the public understanding of what took place in East Timor in 1975?

Haigh: Well the other file that we didn't discuss had information relating to the Department... exchanges of cables and other information relating to the Department. Prior knowledge of the Indonesian intention to consider the invasion of East Timor as an option... there were other options of course. I think that if this information was publicly released, people would see that the Australian Government had been very closely involved... or had been involved with the Indonesian Government at the time that the Indonesian Government was trying to work out what it was going to do with East Timor. I would say that we had received and had been consulted and had discussed with the Indonesian Government on the options that they felt they were faced with including the military invasion of East Timor, and incorporation of East Timor into Indonesia.

Dobell: Now these discussions with Indonesia, these took place weeks before invasion... months, how far back?

Haigh: From my recollection it covered at least a period of nine-months if not 12-months before the invasion, but to be on the safe side, nine-to-ten-months before the invasion.

Dobell: So how does this information differ from the public explanations that have been given by Australian Governments of both political persuasions about what Australia knew, and what Australia did over East Timor?

Haigh: I'd say Australia knew, and I would also say that Australia agreed with the military-incorporation, or the incorporation by the military of East Timor into Indonesia.

Dobell: Why did you not give evidence to the inquiry set up by lawyer Tony Sherman two-years ago... why did you not speak to Mr Sherman?

Haigh: Because I didn't think that they were serious about getting to the bottom of the whole question, because the terms of reference were very narrow... because of the way in which Garreth Evans adressed himself on the question of the inquiry, and because after having been at Foreign Affairs for 23-years I was unsure about the processes of government relating to East Timor and indeed to the conduct of foreign policy and diplomacy in the region. And I just didn't believe that they would make rigorous efforts to uncover what happened there, and in fact that's exactly what happened.

Dobell: Will you speak to the second Sherman inquiry?

Haigh: No no no.

Dobell: What sort of inquiry would be necessary do you think?

Haigh: Judicial. You have to give protection to witnesses and it has to be conducted at a level above that of a sort of a "Kangaroo Court". I mean Sherman can't be asked or nor should he volunteer his services, to go back and try and make good his tarnished reputaion with respect to this inquiry. It's done, he had a go, he was given the opportunity, he failed. Now it's no good getting him to try and make good that failure.