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Australian envoy lashes Wiranto over Timor

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - November 20, 2000

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Australia's senior diplomat in Jakarta, Mr John McCarthy, has accused Indonesia's former military chief, General Wiranto, of having "broad knowledge" of the violence and destruction in East Timor last year.

In the most direct claim by Australia that Indonesian military leaders were complicit in the bloodshed, Mr McCarthy said General Wiranto knew of terror tactics, including plans to intimidate and injure Australians and other foreigners.

In an interview with the Herald , Mr McCarthy dismissed General Wiranto's claim that he was unaware of the campaign aimed at blocking independence and intimidating foreign observers.

He said there was international expectation that General Wiranto should be punished. So far only 33 soldiers and militia members, all based in in East Timor, have been investigated by Indonesian authorities.

Until now Australian ministers and officials have avoided blaming General Wiranto directly for the violence, saying publicly that they believed "rogue" elements of the military were responsible.

Mr McCarthy said he also believed that Indonesia came close to breaking off diplomatic relations with Canberra when Australian troops led an international force into East Timor to stop the violence.

If large numbers of militia, or Indonesian soldiers, had been shot by the arriving United Nations forces, relations would have turned "very sour indeed". Mr McCarthy's naming of General Wiranto coincides with comments by Mr James Dunn, the UN-appointed "special rapporteur" on war crimes in East Timor, that he has uncovered new evidence that senior Indonesian military officials "actively directed and organised" the political violence .

The Jakarta Government, wanting to head off an international war crimes tribunal, is preparing to put on trial in January 22 suspects, including senior military and police commanders who served in East Timor.

Mr McCarthy's comments will increase the pressure on Indonesian authorities to also charge General Wiranto, whom they have so far failed to name as a suspect, but they will also anger anti-Australian elements in Jakarta.

These elements often accuse Australia of interfering in Indonesia's internal affairs. They also oppose any trip by President Abdurrahman Wahid to Australia to help repair relations that collapsed over East Timor.

Mr McCarthy said that the Indonesian military was not a "totally incompetent" organisation. "I do not believe that the sort of activity that was taking place in East Timor in the lead-up to the ballot could have taken place without the broad knowledge of the senior commanders in that organisation.

"They might not have known the details or were being kept up to date on everything that was being done," he said. Mr McCarthy was the highest-ranking foreign diplomat to remain in East Timor as pro-Jakarta militia, soldiers and police rampaged through the territory.

Asked whether it was just good luck that no Australians were killed in East Timor at the height of the violence, he said: "What Timor showed was a very carefully calculated exercise ... intimidating the foreigners and driving them out straight after the ballot. I think it was lucky ... they were trying to frighten people, injure people without killing them, so in that sense we were lucky that a mistake wasn't made."

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