A meeting of top military, police, pro-autonomy and paramilitary leaders, in East Timor, has planned a guerrilla war if the autonomy plan is rejected at the vote on the territory's future on Aug 30. Also the miltias have been instructed to use violent means to disrupt voting, with the help of the Indonesian military (TNI) and the police.
This was revealed to ETISC over the weekend by a reliable source in Lisbon. The source said a secret six-hour meeting was held in East Timor's Korem headquarters, in Dili, on July 24 which was attended by the Komandan Korem (Regional Military Commander), Kapolwill (Head of the Police), Sekwilda (Secretary of the Local Legislative Assembly), pro-integration leaders and leaders of the paramilitary groups.
After long strategic discussions, according to the source, the meeting decided on the following work agenda in the period leading up to the Aug 30 vote:
- Mass mobilisation of the militias at the time of the campaigns to create riots and instigate violence so that the population is frightened to vote;
- A full resort to arms by the militias with the support of either the TNI or the Indonesian police. The families of the militias would be evacuated to West Timor and cared for by the Indonesian authorities;
- The targeting of key independence leaders by the militias;
- The planning of a drawn-out guerrilla war, waged by the militias, if Indonesia's autonomy plan is rejected at the August 30 vote;
- Seeking a full commitment from the authorities in Jakarta that Indonesia will not withdraw from East Timor, even under UN threat.
The document signed by HR Garnadi, special assistant to General Feisal Tandjung, coordinating minister of politics and security, calls on the Indonesian government to confirm its commitment to the militias by "empowering the pro-integration forces."
The document calls on Jakarta to prepare West Timor for a huge influx of pro-integrationists and their supporters, and instructs the paramilitaries to destroy vital facilities during their withdrawal.
Earlier last week the Australian media, quoting diplomatic and church sources, warned that 400 to 500 assault rifles, grenades and mortars are being held in various Kodim (Indonesian military district command) posts along the West Timor frontier, ready to be handed out to the militias.
Clearly, the TNI – conniving with the paramilitaries – is planning a "scorched-earth" policy if the most likely outcome on August 30 is independence.
Under a May 5 agreement between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations, Indonesia is solely responsible for security in the period leading up to the UN-sponsored ballot. But what happens after that is still not clear.
Even under the present circumstances, the TNI and the Indonesian police have done virtually nothing when militia groups went on their violent rampages against independence supporters. Despite numerous representations to Jakarta, the Indonesian military have refused to rein in the militias. As it is the security conditions, in the territory, simply do not exist for a truly genuine, democratic ballot to take place.
Because of this, there seems to be not much of a choice but to urge the international community to support the dispatch of armed United Nations peacekeepers to East Timor before the poll. It will be too late to go in if Indonesia-sponsored militia violence breaks out in a massive way before the arrival of the UN troops.
Australia's rejection of advances, at this juncture, from the United States to cooperate on peacekeeping plans for strife-torn East Timor is certainly not helpful.
End military ties with Jakarta, now!
The federal government has made much of its supposed foreign policy "shift" on East Timor. Foreign minister Alexander Downer travelled to Indonesia on July 30 for discussions with Indonesian government and military figures – and postured as a grand defender of a free and fair poll on East Timor's future.
But other events demonstrate how thin Canberra's new-found "support" for East Timorese self-determination really is.
On August 2, military forces from Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea will begin joint air and sea exercises in northern Australia. Labelled "Kakadu '99", the exercises involve 4200 personnel and dozens of ships and are part of a long history of close collaboration between the Australian and Indonesian armed forces. This has included joint exercises by naval, air and land units, regular high-level exchanges and visits, and the training of Indonesian officers in Australia.
These ties have been defended and encouraged by successive federal governments as a mechanism for "influencing" the Indonesian military in a "positive" and "modern" direction. The abundant evidence of the Indonesian military's brutality has been dismissed out of hand as, in the words of Labor's foreign minister Gareth Evans at the time of the 1992 Dili massacre, "an aberration".
Following the Labor government's 1995 Security Treaty, Australia's defence relations with Indonesia became closer than with any other country, including the United States.
Since the resignation of Indonesian dictator Suharto in May 1998, the Australian government has argued that military ties should remain intact because continued cooperation will let Australia in on the ground floor of the "new" Indonesia. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The July 27 report from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Security Council said (in UN-style understatement) that the security situation in East Timor prior to the August referendum on East Timor's relationship with Indonesia was "still inadequate". The folly of leaving the security and fairness of the poll to the Indonesian military has been well and truly shown by Indonesia's active support for, and shielding of, the anti-independence terror gangs.
Despite a name change and the formal separation of the police force and the armed forces, the Indonesian military remains, from top to bottom, as brutal and corrupt as it was under Suharto.
On July 26, the majority of members of Indonesia's election commission refused to endorse the results of the June 7 elections. The commission, made up of one representative from each registered political party, cited 120,000 unresolved electoral violations, many involving the elite's party, Golkar.
The Australian government is "cooperating" with the same elite, who pocketed billions of rupiah from corruption, supported by a military with very bloody hands, under Suharto. It is the same people, with the same goals and methods.
That the Australian government chooses to do so is not simply the result of stupidity or short-sightedness. It is because the Australian elite is complicit in, and profits from, the crimes of the Indonesian regime.
All those who are horrified by the Indonesian military's brutality and desperate attempts to hang onto power need to take urgent action to help force Canberra to end its military ties with Jakarta, now!