[Australia is to talk to East Timor about Indonesia's acquittal of army officers accused of human rights crimes in East Timor. Australia's Foreign Minister says Canberra is concerned about the decision by Indonesia's Human Rights Court to clear six officers over their role in the 1999 violence. The line from Australia's Defence Minister, though, is that Australia will continue to repair military ties with Indonesia.]

Graeme Dobell, Canberra

Transcript:

Dobell: East Timor says it's a farce. Australia expresses concern. The target is Indonesia's Human Rights Court, set up to judge the violence that swept East Timor three years ago. The court last week convicted an East Timorese, the former Governor, Abilio Soares, of failing to prevent the violence, and sentenced him to three years jail. But the court cleared six Indonesian officers accused of human rights crimes, particularly in the massacre of civilians at the Catholic Church at Suai. Expressing disquiet at the acquittal, Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer rejected one argument put by the Indonesian military – that the violence was actually caused by the United Nations involvement in East Timor.

Downer: We obviously don't accept the proposition that the violence had been started by the international community. By that one would essentially mean the United Nations' presence there. Clearly that wasn't the case. In fact the international community did everything it possibly could to try to stem the violence and a lot of the United Nations' civilian police did a very heroic job including some Australians during that period. So we don't accept that as a proposition. I think I won't add to what I've said already, we'll make sure that we follow this issue very closely which we're doing. We have some concerns about what has happened in the last week or so. We nevertheless think it's very important to talk to the East Timorese themselves about this and get some sense of what they feel about it and how they feel this issue can be taken forward, how they would like it to be taken forward. We won't necessarily do what they want or try to do what they want or argue what they want but I think to be respectful we should talk to the East Timorese about it.

Dobell: Australia's Defence Minister, Robert Hill, says Indonesia has given international assurances that its legal system will deal with crimes committed in East Timor. Senator Hill says the acquittals have provoked widespread claims that the Indonesian system is not effective, but he says this claim is premature. For the Defence Minister, the continuing priority is to rebuild the defence relationship with Indonesia that was shattered in East Timor during the 1999 violence.

Hill: We are supporting Indonesia through a relatively modest defence cooperation program. We are also trying to rebuild a defence relationship because we build that can contribute to regional stability. There is a respect within Indonesia for the Australian Defence Force. We believe to walk away from that opportunity is not Australia's national interest. So the short answer to the question is, no we are not reviewing that relationship. At the moment we are actually seeking to build upon it.

Dobell: The Indonesian court decision has produced renewed calls for the United Nations to set up a special tribunal to deal with East Timor. But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer sees little chance of the UN being able to act.

Downer: Whatever one's sentiments about an international tribunal are it would be very hard to establish an international tribunal. That could only be done through as I understand it, through a resolution of the United Nations Security Council. You'd obviously have to get the support of all five of the permanent members of the Security Council as well as a majority of members of the Security Council. I think that would be difficult unless the Indonesians were prepared to support the establishment of an international tribunal and I suspect their argument at the moment is that they have their own process.