Sian Powell, Jakarta – Indonesia's own military films provide the proof that the Soviet equivalent of napalm, opalm, was used on the people of East Timor during Jakarta's 24-year occupation of the former Portuguese colony.
An internationally funded report by an independent commission into the occupation obtained a copy of the films, refuting Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono's assertion on Friday that Indonesia had never used napalm against the East Timorese.
"This is a war of numbers and data about things that never happened," he said in Jakarta. "How could we have used napalm against the East Timorese? Back then we didn't even have the capacity to import, let alone make napalm."
Yet the UN Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation report, obtained by The Australian, says the Indonesian military used opalm bombs and other incendiary devices during counter-insurgency campaigns in East Timor.
"The US-supplied OV-10 Bronco planes employed were equipped with light weapons, rockets and opalm, a Soviet equivalent of napalm bought by Indonesia during its campaign in West Irian in 1962," the 2500-page report says.
"The commission received copies of Indonesian military propaganda film about the campaigns of the late 1970s, including extensive footage of preparation for bombing raids at Baucau airport, and footage of the raids themselves.
"In this footage, Indonesian military personnel are filmed clearly loading bombs labelled opalm into the OV-10 Broncos at Baucau airport. The planes are then shown taking off." The commission also refers to a military document, which provides the details of weapons used in the campaigns, including: "opalm bombs, bombs with widespread non-targeted impact, and the use of OV-10 Bronco and Sky Hawk airplanes".
One of the almost 8000 witnesses the commission interviewed for the report remembered the burning bombs.
"The trees and grass would burn when the bombs hit them and the water would become undrinkable because it was contaminated with poison," Lucas da Costa Xavier told the commission. "Many civilians died from drinking the water contaminated with shrapnel from bombs dropped from the planes, and many died of burns – it was the dry season, so the grass burned easily."
The commission found the Indonesian military resorted to "all available means to overcome resistance to the invasion and occupation – the means included chemical weapons which poisoned water supplies, killed crops and other vegetation, and napalm bombs and other incendiary devices, whose effect was to indiscriminately burn everything and everyone within their range, including men, women and child civilians".
East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao presented the commission's report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on Friday, but it has so far remained under wraps.
Mr Gusmao received the report last October, and has said his trip to the US would mark the beginning of its "intensive dissemination". He intends to personally present a copy of the report to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before returning to East Timor.
In New York, Mr Gusmao again stated his opposition to an international tribunal or reparations from Indonesia for the war crimes committed during the occupation, as the commission recommended.
Always a very pragmatic leader, the former resistance hero said the fall of Indonesian dictator Suharto in 1998 provided justice for the East Timorese, and the beginning of the end of the occupation of East Timor.
"We accept the results of the report as a way to heal the wounds," he said. "The figures (of casualties) can be disputed. But it is not so important to look at the figures. It is more important to look at the lessons."
Mr Gusmao said he advocated "restorative" justice over "punitive" justice, citing South Africa, where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the brutal excesses of apartheid and for the first time gave the mostly black victims a voice.