Emma Tinkler, Sydney – Provocateurs from within the ranks of the Indonesian military had incited violence in the nation's troubled provinces, Australian missionaries said today.
Uniting Church workers, who recently returned from Ambon, Timor and Irian Jaya, called on the Australian government to raise the matter with the Indonesian government and pour more aid into the country.
Reverend John Barr, who supports calls for a United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor, said the army was actively involved in supporting breakaway pro-independence civil military groups in the province.
"While [Indonesia's armed forces chief] General Wiranto is claiming that the military are there to protect the people, it's obvious that they are actually there to sabotage the peace process and to sabotage any move towards independence," Rev Barr said.
"I would go as far as to say that I think the Indonesian military are actually supporting a form of state terrorism within East Timor and the groups that they have set up are really similar to death squads."
Reverend Bill Fischer, who spent time in Irian Jaya and Joy Balazo who worked in Ambon, laid direct blame on the Indonesian military for the deaths over the years of hundreds of thousands of supporters of independence, and for inciting religious violence. They called on the Australian government to be strong in demanding the curbing of military forces in the troubled islands.
"I think it's very important for the military to restrain themselves to what would be the normal role of security forces," Rev Fischer said.
"I think the Australian government should be saying that the military should be taking a neutral position to ensure that free elections can occur, and that people who are political leaders of any persuasion are not intimidated by arrest or ... by other means.
"Our prime minister, the leaders of our government and our foreign minister need to speak forthrightly so that there can be fairness and justice in our neighbouring country."
Rev Fischer said the Uniting Church in Australia would be asking the government to provide further humanitarian aid to the region.
"The Australian government ... needs to take substantive responsibility particularly if the situation continues to worsen in Indonesia," he told AAP.
"I think we've got no choice as a country [but] to take responsibility. It may be one of our biggest tests as a nation in how we respond to Indonesia in these next months ahead."