Evidence given by different witnesses to the Sydney coroner's court inquest into the death of Brian Peters and four other journalists in the East Timor town of Balibo on 16 October 1975 indicate that former Gen. Sutiyoso, now governor of Jakarta, may have been an army captain in "Team Susi," the Indonesian military unit responsible for taking Balibo that day.

Members of an Indonesian coalition of human rights groups said at a new conference in Jakarta on 31 May that Governor Sutiyoso should have been arrested during a visit to Sydney when he failed to comply with a summons to give evidence to the inquest.

Referring to UN police archives, the coalition said Sutiyoso led the unit that took the town of Batugade, which became the strategic base for taking Balibo a few days later. Now a retired army general, Sutiyoso commanded troops that committed war crimes during the invasion and occupation of East Timor, the coalition said. His name has also been mentioned in connection with the repression of Indonesian oppositions group, especially the PDI, during the dictatorship and the repression of separatists in Aceh.

"Governor Sutiyoso's orchestration of a diplomatic crisis since his return to Jakarta should not make us forget his record of human rights violations," a coalition spokesperson said. "The Australian government should have insisted that the governor of Jakarta appear before the court in Sydney."

After cutting short a trip of Sydney and returning to Jakarta on 29 May, Gen. Sutiyoso angrily complained that a police officer forcibly entered his Sydney hotel room to deliver him the summons to appear before the inquest. His demands for an official apology were followed by anti-Australian demonstrations in Indonesia.

Australia's ambassador in Indonesia, Bill Farmer, and New South Wales premier Morris Iemma (who had invited Gen. Sutiyoso to Sydney) quickly apologised to him and said the "regrettable" incident would be investigated.

When the inquest into the death of the five journalists in Balibo began last February, the Indonesian foreign minister warned Australia that "any discovery hostile to Indonesia in the course of this inquiry would only weaken the already tenuous links of this bilateral relationship."