Reporter: Geoff Thompson

Tony Eastley: One of Indonesia's most senior officials has said that his country ran East Timor like a police state and used bribes and allowed militia violence in a failed attempt to defeat the 1999 referendum on independence.

The unprecedented admission came from Indonesia's presidential spokesman, Dino Patti Djalal, who was a senior Foreign Minister official when the East Timorese overwhelmingly voted for independence.

He was speaking at the launch of a new book about East Timor by Ali Alatas, who was Indonesia's Foreign Minister at the time. Jakarta Correspondent Geoff Thompson reports.

Geoff Thompson: The Pebble in the Shoe is the name of a new book by Indonesia' former Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, a title which repeats something he once said about how Indonesia was affected by East Timor's long struggle for independence. Ali Alatas has a different view now.

Ali Alatas: I have to admit that in its final years the East Timor problem was no longer a mere pebble in the shoe, but had become a big boulder dragging down Indonesia's international reputation to one of its lowest points.

Geoff Thompson: Ali Alatas' book catalogues the long diplomatic path to East Timor's troubled freedom and confirms that it was John Howard's letter to BJ Habibe which sent the then Indonesian President suddenly rushing towards the independence option without consulting his then Foreign Minister.

But last night it was Indonesia's current presidential spokesman, Dino Patti Djalal, who stole the show. He spoke from the floor, not on behalf of Indonesia's President, but as a former senior Foreign Ministry official who played a part in East Timor's militia-bloodied passage to independence.

Dino Patti Djalal: We never really succeeded. We never really had the heart and will to rein in on the militia, at our own cost, and at the end that is what burned Timor in the end, and that is what ruined the whole peace process.

Geoff Thompson: In 1999, Dino Patti Djalal had the job of putting positive spin on Indonesia's disastrous attempt to defeat the independence momentum. Now he admits Indonesia had no idea what it was doing as it splashed money and permitted violence in a failed bid to win hearts and minds.

Dino Patti Djalal: And in fact what happened was East Timor became sort of a police state, where intelligence controlled all activities.

You could sense that there was tension at the basic level of society. Our strategy for winning hearts and minds was bribing people who we thought were loyal to us and fighting off and probably doing horrible things to those who did not... we thought were not loyal to us. And in such circumstances, there was no way we could win the hearts and minds of the Timorese.

Geoff Thompson: It was an extraordinary speech, made before an audience of dignitaries, including Indonesia's current Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda. Dino Djalal said that Indonesia must learn lessons from its Timor experience, lessons which, he said, made peace in Aceh possible.

In Jakarta, this is Geoff Thompson for AM.