Dili – Indonesia's top military brass plotted the systematic destruction of East Timor and the murder of all independence leaders should the territory vote to break from Jakarta, the country's own human rights investigators said Saturday.

Naming the former commander of Indonesia's armed forces, General Wiranto, as topping their list for interrogation, the inquiry panel alleged the military's complete collusion in the campaign of murder, rape and looting by anti-independence militia which swept the territory in September.

The inquiry, which is independent of the government, has powers of subpoena which can be enforced by the police and has been touted by the Indonesian government as its official investigation. Jakarta has rejected a similar United Nations inquiry.

Albert Hasibuan, chairman of the Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor, told reporters in the capital Dili that plans for the destruction of East Timor were made during a meeting in Dili between Indonesian military intelligence and the militia.

"In that meeting it was instructed then that if the result of the referendum in East Timor was [to] be free then they must destroy all the buildings and kill all the pro-independence leaders," Hasibuan said. Indonesian General Zaki Anwar Makarim attended the meeting, he said.

He is also being sought for questioning, along with General Adam Damiri, who was the regional commander overseeing East Timor, said Hasibuan. Wiranto was commander of the Indonesian armed forces during the violence.

Other senior military officers were also expected to be among those called by the panel. "It will be a long list," Hasibuan said. "These names, I think will be on the list to be called by us and interrogated."

Commission member and noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis also said: "Human rights abuses in East Timor have been done in a brutal, blatant, gross and systematic way. There's been a collusion between the militia, TNI [Indonesian armed forces] and the police in every human rights abuse."

The special nine-member commission was established by the independent Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on September 22 and has until the end of the year to complete its work.

Hasibuan said his allegations were in part based on testimony from a former militia member now in the Portuguese enclave of Macau.

The United Nations, rights groups and witness accounts have all accused Indonesian security forces of orchestrating and taking part in the violence.

Hasibuan said the commission would have to speak to President Abdurrahman Wahid to seek permission for Wiranto to be called as the general is now the minister for politics and security affairs.

Zaki is now based at the military headquarters in Jakarta, while Damiri remains head of the Bali-based Udayana military command which used to oversee security in East Timor, though he is due to be transferred.

The commissioners gave other examples of evidence they said indicated links between the military and the militia.

A witness told the commission that General Syafrie Syamsuddin, former Jakarta military commander, was present during the September attack on the compound of Nobel peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo, Hasibuan said.

He said that during a trip to the southern town of Suai on Saturday a witness identified Lieutenant Sugito and other armed forces members as being involved in a massacre of hundreds of refugees and priests at a church compound in Suai.

"He saw the killing of the three priests with his own eyes and also the killing of hundreds of people ... brought by military trucks to another place that he doesn't know," he said.

On Friday the commissioners met a militia member in Los Palos town who said he was under instruction from the military when he attacked nine people, Lubis said.

"There will be a human rights court which up until now has not been created but I think in the near future, next year, it will be set up," he added. "All of us are committed to investigate, committed to bring justice."

A separate United Nations human rights inquiry team is to arrive in East Timor Wednesday.