Jakarta – Top Indonesian military officer claimed Friday that violence in East Timor was triggered by widespread cheating from United Nations body overseeing the territory's historic 1999 vote for independence.
Retired major general Adam Damiri, the Indonesian military commander in East Timor during the 1999 rampage, testified to the Indonesia-East Timor Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) at public hearings in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Damiri said the violence surrounding East Timor's vote for independence was due to the "incredible disappointment" with the result by pro-Indonesia supporters because of "widespread cheating" from the UN Administration Mission for East Timor [UNAMET].
"If we look into the facts and data and evidence, as well as confessions from witnesses of the cheating... so that the most responsible for the violence in East Timor is UNAMET," Damiri was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara after the hearing.
He said he had expected at least 60 per cent of the population would have voted to remain a part of Indonesia.
The carnage, in which at least 1,500 were killed, began just after voters in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975, voted overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-run referendum on August 30, 1999.
Former Indonesian officers and local militia members have previously accused the UN mission of pressuring Timorese to vote for independence.
Damiri also questioned the assertion that more than 1,000 people died during the widespread violence. "There is no fact that the number of victims was 1,000. It's not more than 100," he asserted. "If there is data saying 1,000 that is nonsense."
The commission aims to establish the truth behind the violence and clarify the history of the two countries, as well as to investigate the actions of militias and of the Indonesian military as it withdrew from the territory.
The commission has been criticized by human rights groups because it lacks the authority to prosecute senior members of the Indonesian Armed Forces for allegedly ordering military-backed militias to massacre Timorese civilians and to raze entire villages.
Several senior Indonesian army and police generals have been acquitted of any involvement in the violence in trials in Indonesia, and the Jakarta government refused to hand over any suspects to a UN-run tribunal in East Timor.
East Timor became an independent nation in 2002 after being administered by the UN for more than two years, and is scheduled to hold its second-ever presidential election on April 9.
It remains to be seen whether the commission will find the truth behind the rampage, which was played out on live international television.
Damiri also denied the Indonesian military had armed the militia gangs, saying that the weapons could have been home-made guns or arms left over after Portuguese colonial rule that ended in the mid-1970s. "The Indonesian Armed Forces never gave arms to anyone, including the militias," he said.
Indonesia occupied East Timor for 24 years, and as many as 200,000 civilians died during that period. Jakarta denies committing any atrocities during the occupation and has claimed the violence in 1999 was not organized by its armed forces.
The commission's first hearings were held on Bali last month, during which civilian victims testified to being attacked by Indonesian army soldiers and militias.
The panel's 10 members include legal and human rights experts, academics and religious leaders from both Indonesia and East Timor.
It will submit its findings to both governments, and can recommend amnesties for perpetrators if they are found to be "fully cooperative" with the commission.