Lindsay Murdoch – The Whitlam Government gave Jakarta every indication that Australia favoured Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, according to Indonesia's former foreign minister, Mr Ali Alatas. He says Australia felt East and West Timor shared a common race and culture, so "it would be better for East Timor to join Indonesia".

At the time Mr Alatas, a senior diplomat, was a personal assistant to Indonesia's then foreign minister, the late Adam Malik. "The Australian Government itself did not want to be involved, although it was under fire from its own people for letting the conflict flare up," Mr Alatas said in an interview with the Jakarta-based magazine Tempo.

He said his government told Mr Whitlam and Mr Gerald Ford then the United States president, "what we were doing" on East Timor, which had been abandoned by Portugal. "They did not show their stance of opposition," Mr Alatas said.

Mr Whitlam has declined so far to comment on revelations concerning his government's role before the invasion contained in documents released by the current Australian Government.

Mr Alatas told Tempo that Indonesia's Cabinet agreed last year to give East Timorese a vote to decide their future because, "we were then very convinced we would win the referendum. Everything was painted with optimism," he said. "This conviction left us unprepared for the result of the referendum." The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to reject Indonesia's 24-year rule at a United Nations-supervised ballot on August 30 last year.

Mr Alatas said Indonesia's decision to give the East Timorese a vote on independence was initiated by a letter from the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, to the former president, Dr B.J. Habibie, in December 1998. Mr Alatas said that upon careful reading, the letter opposed Indonesia's then plans for East Timor. Australia claimed to "prefer gradual autonomy" towards independence.

"If only the letter had come from another country, it could have been easily understood," Mr Alatas said. "But this was from Australia, our all-time supporter."