Guido Guilliart, Dili – East Timor's president on Tuesday rejected recommendations made by a national commission to address human rights abuses carried out during Indonesia's 24 yearlong occupation, saying they could create anarchy.
Xanana Gusmao, who has repeatedly emphasized that reconciliation with his powerful neighbor was more important than justice for the victims, also denounced proposals contained in report calling for countries that supported the Indonesian invasion to pay reparations.
The 2,500-page report by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation was scathingly critical of Indonesian rule during which about 200,00 people – a third of the population – died.
The former Portuguese colony was devastated during a long war of liberation that followed Indonesia's December 1975 invasion. The attack was tacitly sanctioned by then-US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who both met with Indonesia's then-dictator, Suharto, in Jakarta a day before the assault.
Indonesia's iron-fisted rule ended in 1999, after a UN-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence. In a final act of vengeance, withdrawing Indonesian troops and their militia auxiliaries destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and killed at least 1,500 people.
East Timor remains Asia's poorest country. But in recent years economic, political and even military ties with Indonesia have improved significantly. The leaders of the two countries have exchanged numerous visits and Indonesia is now East Timor's largest trade partner.
The rights panel, created by the UN interim administration which ran East Timor from 1999 until independence in 2002, recommended that Indonesia compensate the victims and that the perpetrators of violence be brought to justice.
"The Commission is of the opinion that it is not possible to achieve long-lasting reconciliation without establishing the truth, obtaining justice, and providing compensation to the victims. Compensation is necessary in order to restore the dignity of victims and to amend the damaged relations within our society," the report said.
But Gusmao, a former rebel leader who spent six years in an Indonesian prison, noted that "politics is the art of the possible," adding that "sensible politics" dictated that East Timor "conform to the current reality."
"The best justice, the true justice, was the recognition by the international community of the right to self-determination and independence the People of Timor-Leste have," he said in a speech in parliament.
"What truly concerns me are the recommendations pertaining to reparations to the victims," Xanana said. "This recommendation does not take into account the situation of political anarchy and social chaos that could easily erupt if we decided to bring to court every crime committed since 1975."
He praised Indonesia's current leaders, saying that they had "invested considerable effort in the democratization of the country."
After the events of 1999, Jakarta came under intense international pressure to punish those responsible for the bloodshed in East Timor.
A rights court tried 18 Indonesian military and government officials in connection with the war, but convicted only six – five of whom were subsequently freed on appeal.