Jakarta – Indonesia's military chief on Sunday denied that the country's forces massacred or starved to death more than 180,000 civilians and used napalm against them during its 24-year occupation of East Timor.
Gen. Endriartono Sutarto's comments came in response to claims in an internationally funded report handed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan by East Timor President Xanana Gusmao on Friday.
The Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, compiled over a two-year period, says 183,000 people were killed or starved to death during Indonesia's rule of East Timor, according to Pat Walsh, an adviser to the investigating panel.
It also says troops used the chemical agent napalm against the population and deprived people of food, according to a leaked copy of the report given to The Australian newspaper.
"I am not at all sure whether such a huge number of deaths came about as a result of the actions of Indonesia's Armed Forces and police at that time," he said.
"It is not true that we deliberately carried out massacres using napalm and starving people. That is not true at all," he said, adding that the military keeps data that will exonerate the actions of the Indonesian security personnel.
On Friday, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono also denied the veracity of some of the claims in the report.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and ruled the tiny half-island territory with an iron fist until 1999, when 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.
The international community pressured Jakarta in 2002 to establish a special tribunal to prosecute Indonesians allegedly responsible for the violence.
But the trials have been widely criticized as a sham, with all 17 police and military commanders indicted receiving acquittals. The other, a Timorese militia leader, is free on appeal.
Indonesia and East Timor have repeatedly said they don't want to open old wounds and have rejected recommendations made in the 2,500-page report.
Among them are that Indonesian troops involved in the bloodshed face new trials and that international arms suppliers and nations that supported the violent 1975 invasion compensate victims.
Napalm, or jellied gasoline, is a flammable weapon that was widely used by American forces in the Vietnam War. The United Nations banned the use of napalm against civilian populations in 1980.