London – Secret military documents implicate Indonesia's top generals in a campaign of coercion and repression in East Timor intended to prevent the territory gaining independence, The Independent daily reported here Saturday.
After the Indonesian government agreed to the independence referendum, plots were secretly laid to undo a yes-vote. Soldiers were told to "repress" local inhabitants and army guns were handed out to militias, the paper said.
In one document quoted by the paper, the army chief of staff General Subagyo told forces based in Dili to prepare "policing measures, repressive/coercive measures" and a plan for "evacuation" if the vote went for independence.
The telegram was dated May 5, 1999 – the day the Indonesian foreign minister signed an agreement at UN headquarters in New York on an independence referendum in the territory.
The Independent said it obtained copies of the documents from workers at the human rights East Timorese Hak Foundation. They found the letters after sneaking into the army's abandoned regional headquarters of the regional army general in the capital Dili.
One Western diplomat told the daily the letters cache was "the missing link." An independent inquiry by an international commission published at the end of January has already said the army was guilty of human rights abuses in the territory.
"It connects the military to the use of repression and coercion and it shows a clear chain of command from close to the very top," the diplomat said.
The frank use of the words "repression" and "evacuation" was surprising, the diplomat added. "Even in their most honest, secret discussions, generals don't often own up to that kind of thinking," he said.
The aid organisation also uncovered a military log book recording the handover of scores of army guns to the local militias. "What surprises me is the sheer quantity," the diplomat told the paper. "We knew that the militia were getting military weapons, but we never knew it was this many," he said.
Plans for forced "evacuation" of the East Timorese should they approve independence were detailed in a police plan, drawn up just before the day of the referendum, August 31.
The plan divides the population into two – those for and those against independence. It quotes estimates that supporters of autonomy outnumbered those for independence by 517,430 to 367,591. Police were told that if the independence vote won, they would have to "evacuate" 50 percent of autonomy supporters.
After the population voted overwhelmingly for independence, 250,000 East Timorese were moved forcibly out of the territory by local militias and the Indonesian army.
The report appeared as EU officials in Lisbon said those convicted of gross human rights abuses in East Timor by the international commission's report should be judged.
A statement from the EU presidency said: "The international community, working through the United Nations, is responsible for ensuring these violations are investigated and those who perpetuated them judged.