Vaudine England, Jakarta – The man who was a role model to Indonesia's new generation of human rights lawyers is now defending the country's top generals, adding to growing controversy over investigations into the military's role in wiping out East Timor.

Adnan Buyung Nasution, with his shock of white hair and pioneering record as protector of the little people, is leading a 27-man team appointed by former armed forces chief General Wiranto to defend him and five fellow officers from human rights charges.

"He is a patriot," said a lawyer familiar with Dr Nasution's work. "He has a history of civil rights work and activism, and now, well, has he sold out? He could rationalise this by saying this is what lawyers do, but, what can I say, he's turned a corner. He's gone too far." Dr Nasution was a founding member of Indonesia's Legal Aid Institute (LBH), the country's first organisation to speak up for human rights in a series of pivotal cases against the former Suharto regime.

He was the symbol of opposition to Suharto's perversion of the legal system, and defended student demonstrators after the Malari Riots of 1974 and the similarly suppressed student movement of 1978.

"All the cases were about the people versus the military, so I don't understand now why he defends the military," said Hendardi, a former colleague of Dr Nasution's at LBH who now runs his own Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association.

"Maybe he doesn't have moral politics," Mr Hendardi said. "He always taught us, when we were in LBH, that we must defend the people, but now, I think he is confused about the meaning of human rights.

"He said the military has human rights, but he is totally wrong. Human rights is for the people, for individuals, not for institutions." Indonesia's top generals stand accused of perpetrating the militia rampage through East Timor which destroyed the new-born country, tortured and killed unknown numbers of people, and forced 300,000 East Timorese into militia-run refugee camps.

Amid worldwide condemnation of Indonesian military action in East Timor, a special team (KPP-Ham) was formed to investigate the generals. It has impressed many with its bold anti-army statements and its discovery of corpses from a military-backed massacre at Suai, East Timor, hidden across the border in Indonesian West Timor.

KPP-Ham is now under attack from lawyers acting for the generals, led by Dr Nasution, in what the Jakarta Post described as a typical pattern in which human rights cases were "disparaged, diverted, and ultimately slowed down, to the current dim prospect of ever uncovering the truth of the matter in court".

Dr Nasution was unrepentant, insisting that he was working for the generals in his position as a professional advocate.

Lawyers representing generals suspected of human rights abuses in East Timor sought yesterday to enter the territory, but had been told to wait and try again next week, United Nations officials in Dili said.