Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia said on Friday reports the United States gave former president Suharto the green light for the bloody 1975 invasion of East Timor came as no surprise, but would not harm relations with the world's only superpower.

The invasion and ensuing 24 year occupation killed more than 200,000 people – a quarter of the population – through fighting, famine and disease as thousands of Timorese took arms against the Indonesian army. "I do not see how that 1975 policy can have any link to our relationship with the US right now. There is no connection," Wahid Supriyadi, a foreign ministry spokesman, told Reuters. "There'll be no effect at all," he added, responding to whether these revelations could put back Indonesia's efforts to get non-lethal military aid from the United States.

Jakarta's rule in East Timor was never recognized by the mainstream world community or the United Nations. But at the height of the Cold War in 1975, the United States – just out of the conflict in Vietnam – and vehement anti-communist Suharto thought communism could creep into the region via Timor following the power vacuum left by former colonial power Portugal's disorganized withdrawal.

These fears pushed then US President Gerald Ford and State Secretary Henry Kissinger to say they would understand Indonesia's invasion, according to newly declassified December 6, 1975 documents.

Supriyadi also said he didn't think the revelations would worsen links with East Timor, strained further after pro-Jakarta militias went on a bloody rampage in 1999. "No effect at all. For Indonesia, that's history. Let bygones be bygones. Our commitment now is for the future ... on how to build bilateral relations with East Timor," he said.

Indonesia has been trying to repair ties with the tiny territory after it overwhelmingly voted for independence in a UN-sponsored ballot two years ago despite an orgy of violence by the militias opposed to breaking away.

Washington slashed military ties with Jakarta following the massacres as many of the militias were supported by the Indonesian army. The United States has since lifted an embargo on sales of non-lethal military items but some Washington analysts thought the newly disclosed material could raise more questions about President Bush's drive to resume such sales.

Indonesian analysts say this is unlikely but say if there was an issue that could jeopardize US-military aid it would be Jakarta's failure to try those involved in the 1999 violence. "The Indonesian military has been required by the US to be accountable ... But we haven't seen much effort and this could affect things," said Hasnan Habib, Jakarta's former ambassador in Washington and a retired general.