Sydney – The Indonesian military is not abiding by its promise to stay neutral in the run up the the August ballot in which 800,000 East Timorese will vote whether to accept limited autonomy or become a free country, Australian officials said Saturday.
Australian ambassador John McCarthy, currently on a four-day fact-finding mission in the former Portuguese colony that Indonesian troops invaded in 1975, said the evidence showed the military were far from impartial.
"I have seen evidence that could lead one along the lines of that sort of conclusion," McCarthy told ABC Radio in a telephone interview from Dili.
McCarthy, in the company of 30 heavily armed Indonesian soldiers, became the first diplomat to enter the town of Liquica, a stronghold of the anti-independence militia that have the support of the Indonesian armed forces. Foreign journalists have been prevented from entering Liquica – as have aid workers.
McCarthy was in Liquica to investigate claims that Indonesian troops are herding East Timorese into a makeshift refugee camp and forcing them to pledge allegiance to Jakarta in contravention of a promise made last month to be even-handed in the run up to the vote on August 8.
The Australian envoy stressed the importance of a free and fair ballot on the autonomy package signed by Indonesia and Portugal at the United Nations in New York last week.
"It is very important that Indonesia and the international community recognise the importance of this process," McCarthy said.
Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1965 to put down a civil war and have ruled the territory ever since in defiance of UN resolutions.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and other aid agencies have been denied entry to the Liquica camp 40 kilometres west of the capital Dili where tens of thousands of East Timorese are living in appalling conditions.
Pro-independence activists who have escaped from the camp allege that inmates are obliged to sing the Indonesian national anthem each day, salute the Indonesian flag and wear red and white, the flag's colours.
The Liquica camp was set up last month after pro-integration militias attacked a church in the town killing up to 60 people who had sought refuge there from the violence that has spread across the dirt-poor province. No action was taken against the perpetrators of the attack on the Catholic church. The Indonesian military say the camp is to house villagers fleeing factional fighting.
Estanislau Martins, the head of a Catholic aid organisation in Dili, said he had been denied permission to send supplies to the camp. "They [the pro-Indonesia militias] are sweeping the outlying villages and bringing the people to centres so they can make sure they vote the right way," he was quoted as saying.
The advance guard of a 1,000-strong UN contingent is expected in East Timor within the next 10 days. Australia, which has promised to fund half the cost of the UN operation, has committed around 50 police to the force of around 250 civilian police who will act as advisers to local police.
The UN-flagged force, to be in place mid-June, will be allowed to bear side arms. Police from Australia, the US, Japan, Britain, Germany and the Philippines will constitute the force.
McCarthy said an Australian consulate – the first foreign legation in the territory – will be set up in Dili in about four weeks.