The Australian government knew about Indonesian military plans to massacre East Timor independence supporters in 1999 and thought clever diplomacy could prevent it, a former member of the INTERFET forces said.

Wayne Sievers, who served as a federal police officer in East Timor at the time of the massacre of 47 civilians outside a police station in Maliana, said the Howard government was made aware of the massacre plans through documents he provided to both the UN and the defence force.

"Our government did know, and I'm fairly sure of it because I obtained some internal Indonesian army and militia documents in the weeks beforehand predicting the violence in and around the Maliana area," he told the Sunrise program on Channel Seven.

"Those documents were forwarded not only on to the UN and Australian military personnel who were working in the UN in Dilli at the time, but I'd also sent those documents to Canberra to a friend of mine in the defence intelligence community via a secure means." He said the documents detailed "chilling" plans by the Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian militia to kill independence supporters. "It showed the deep involvement of the Indonesian civil administration, too," he said.

After he provided the documents, Mr Sievers said he had little reaction from either the Australians or the UN officials. "The UN was in a state of denial at the time and still pushing the line that, 'oh well, this is just disinformation from the independence side'," he said.

"I didn't hear anything after I sent the documents to Canberra, and in fact I got so worried about the coming violence in East Timor that I'd given the first of these documents to an Australian diplomat on the ground in East Timor and he agreed that this document was genuine, or probably genuine.

"But in the subsequent weeks he refused to accept any more and I could only conclude the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs knew what the Indonesians were planning and didn't want a documentary trail to show that they knew." He said he couldn't confirm whether Australian troops and police were instructed to underestimate the death toll at Maliana, because the incident occurred after his time in East Timor.

Mr Sievers said he agreed with Captain Andrew Plunkett – who served in East Timor and yesterday alleged the Australian government failed to act on information and stop the massacre – that reports of Maliana were pushed up the chain of command, hosed down and politically watered down by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

"I have some contacts in the intelligence community here in Canberra in defence and they were telling me that as early as early '99 and late '98 they were being put under pressure not to put things in reports, such as the high level involvement of the Indonesian military of the recruitment, training, funding, organising of the militias," he said.

"I can only conclude that yes, they knew the Indonesian military were planning to do this but they imagined quite naively and quite mistakenly that they had some kind of special relationship with the Indonesians and they could persuade them through clever diplomacy not to do this.

"Well it seems that that was mistaken and it cost people's lives." Mr Sievers was not confident about the future army career of Captain Plunkett. "His [Captain Plunkett's] experience will mirror my own," he said.

"The Howard government will crush Captain Plunkett for this. The Howard government does not tolerate dissent on East Timor, they intend to use it as something they can hang their hat on going into the next election.

"I have already heard the disinformation campaign, or the rumours if you like, against him have already started in Canberra yesterday, and I know where they are coming from and they will not tolerate this. His time in the military is probably very short and what he has done yesterday was the act of an incredibly brave man who has served his country well."