Tim Dodd, Jakarta – Some think he should be in the dock himself but yesterday former Indonesian armed forces commander Wiranto appeared at the East Timor atrocity trial in Jakarta as a witness rather than as one of the 18 accused of crimes against humanity.

Every bit as polished and confident as he used to be when he openly wielded power, Mr Wiranto gave evidence in the trial of East Timor's former police commander, Brigadier-General Timbul Silaen, before the Human Rights Court in Jakarta

General Silaen is accused of doing nothing to prevent a series of massacres of pro-independence supporters, particularly the notorious killings of scores of people in a church yard at Suai after the independence ballot on August 30, 1999.

For his part Mr Wiranto offered nothing new at yesterday's hearing, repeating his oft-told defence of the behaviour of Indonesian police and army units who were supposed to be keeping order in East Timor. "It was a mission impossible," Mr Wiranto said, insisting that the security forces could not stop a 23-year-old conflict in a matter of a month or two.

But what was not exhibited in the court room yesterday, and is unlikely to make any appearance at the trial of these 18 defendants, is the electronic intercepts collected by Australia's intelligence services in 1999 which clearly implicate Indonesian generals in the violence in the territory.

Extracts from these intercepts, revealed in The Sydney Morning Herald last month, show that top generals and political leaders were behind a deliberate campaign of destabilisation in East Timor. It was aimed, firstly, at securing a vote in favour of remaining with Indonesia, and later at discrediting the 79 per cent to 21 per cent decision in favour of independence.

The then co-ordinating political minister in the Habibie government, former General Faisal Tanjung, and the former army intelligence chief, Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim, were revealed as being closely involved. Neither of these big fish are on trial now nor are ever likely to be.

Interestingly, Mr Wiranto was not directly implicated by the published transcripts, which may point to him genuinely not being closely involved in the East Timor campaign of violence and destruction operation. Or possibly he was too shrewd to speak about it on phone lines like his colleagues.

So yesterday, instead of a trial of the real culprits, we were treated to another Wiranto performance. Immaculately dressed in a brown batik shirt and with a ready smile for the cameras he was, as usual, arrogant falling just short of insolent.

The "fair way" to see the security forces performance in East Timor was that they stopped the clashes growing into a civil war, Mr Wiranto said as he left the court.