Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – The Indonesian president who allowed the East Timor referendum on independence said on Tuesday the mayhem that followed the vote could have been avoided had the United Nations not declared the result earlier than agreed.
B.J. Habibie, who has lived in Germany since his term ended in 1999, made the statement during a closed hearing in Jakarta held by a truth commission set up by Indonesia and East Timor in an attempt to uncover events surrounding the bloody August 1999, referendum. His comments were relayed by commission officials. The vote showed East Timorese overwhelmingly wanted to end Indonesia's occupation of the tiny former Portuguese colony.
The United Nations estimates that about 1,000 East Timorese were killed in violence after the vote blamed largely on pro-Jakarta militias backed by elements of the Indonesian army.
Habibie did not speak to the media after the hearing but the commission held a news conference describing the testimony.
An Indonesian commissioner, Achmad Ali, said Habibie had blamed the United Nations, which organised the vote, for stirring up the situation by declaring the results on Sept. 4, 1999, three days ahead of schedule.
"He said that if the scale of violence that had occurred was 100, it actually could be minimised to 10 if Kofi Annan did not break his promise. The agreement with Kofi Annan actually was that before Sept. 7 there would be martial law," he said. Annan was UN Secretary General at that time.
Asked about how Habibie felt when his policy to allow a referendum ended with violence, Ali said: "He regretted it. He said he cried and wondered how it could happen like that."
Commission co-chairman Benjamin Mangkoedilaga said Habibie had denied that Jakarta had a scorched-earth contingency plan for East Timor if it voted to leave.
On Monday, the opening day of the commission's second series of hearings, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carlos Belo – Catholic bishop of Dili from 1996 to 2002 – said Indonesian soldiers had taken part in violence against church and clergy across East Timor before and after the freedom vote.
The current hearings running until Friday are also to hear testimony from victims, from three Indonesian generals connected with operations in East Timor in 1999, and from the only Indonesian incarcerated for his involvement in the violence – militia leader Eurico Guterres.
Seventeen other men indicted by Jakarta prosecutors over the 1999 chaos received acquittals at various court stages. All were Indonesian soldiers, police or government officials.
Critics say the commission is toothless because it lacks the power to punish those responsible for abuses.
Mainly Catholic East Timor became fully independent in May 2002 after a UN transitional administration that followed 24 years of often repressive Indonesian occupation.