Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – US support for the final report of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF) and the release of a former Timor Leste militia leader are face-saving efforts, says an expert.
University of Indonesia international relations expert Hariyadi Wirawan said Indonesia and the United States apparently wanted to say there were no gross human rights violations before and after the 1999 referendum in the then Indonesian province of East Timor, and all incidents from 1975 onward were not by design but by default.
"These are face-saving efforts of Indonesia and the United States. By saying the incidents were by default, they mean to say 'There's no one to blame, so let's just forget it and move on,'" he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met last Friday with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his tour of Southeast Asia, which included stops in Indonesia and Timor Leste.
After the meeting, he said the United States would accept the findings of the commission probing killings by Indonesian troops during Timor Leste's break from Jakarta, despite a boycott of the process by the United Nations and criticism by rights groups.
"If it's good enough for East Timor and Indonesia, it should be good enough for us. What we want to see is reconciliation between Indonesia and East Timor. This is the way to go. If you look at East Timor's future, it needs a good relationship with Indonesia," Hill said.
After months of delay, the CTF is expected to present its final report to the presidents of both Indonesia and Timor Leste next week.
Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal confirmed that Timor Leste was one of the topics, besides North Korea, Myanmar and the Middle East, discussed by the President and Hill. However, he stressed the independence of the CTF, saying the commission's work was an effort to seek truth so the two countries could work together in the future.
"The long delay of the commission to issue its final report shows there is genuine debate among its members. It shows they are independent," he said.
Hariyadi, however, questioned the coincidence of Hill's visit to Jakarta and Dili and the release of Eurico Guterres ahead of the release of the CTF's final report.
The Supreme Court cleared Guterres, the only person jailed over the violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 vote for independence, after it found he was not proven to have structural command to coordinate attacks.
"I think the events are all connected. If it is true, then the CTF's final credibility is under question as many will see there has been general pre-negotiation between the United States and Indonesia on the results," he said.
Hariyadi said the United States had an interest in speeding up the commission's work as many have accused it of pushing Soeharto to invade East Timor to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia after it couldn't prevent the fall of Vietnam to communism in 1975.
Many observers have suggested the United States would not allow the lack of justice over past rights abuses to hurt its growing ties with Indonesia, a nation seen as a counterbalance to China's growing clout in Asia.
"I am afraid the CTF final report will be designed to just make everybody happy," Hariyadi said.
International law expert at the University of Indonesia Hikmahanto Juwana said the CTF's final report would determine the fate of the human rights cases and future Indonesia-Timor Leste relations.