EAST TIMOR -- FINDINGS OF FINAL COMMISSION REPORT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 003339

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, DRL/PHD, EAP/MLS, EAP/ANP
NSC FOR EPHU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/2017
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV TT ID AU
SUBJECT: EAST TIMOR -- FINDINGS OF FINAL COMMISSION REPORT
COME INTO SOME FOCUS

REF: A. JAKARTA 3223


B. JAKARTA 3008

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Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4 (B-D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The Indonesia Timor-Leste Commission of
Truth and Friendship (CTF) is likely to cite gross human
rights violations involving both pro-Indonesian and
pro-independence forces in its final report to be issued in
February 2008, an Indonesian Commissioner told us. The
Commission is also examining previous statements by leaders
of the two countries which publicly expressed words of
reconciliation and regret. The Commissioner also discussed
the killing of five foreign journalists in 1975. END SUMMARY.

DISCUSSING THE FINAL REPORT


2. (C) Mission is receiving initial details about what will
be included in the CTF's final report. Indonesian CTF
Commissioner Wisber Loeis told DepPol/C December 6 that after
deliberating six days a week since it completed its public
hearings on October 24 (ref A) the CTF has made a
breakthrough in agreeing to report that "gross human rights
violations" occurred in East Timor in 1999. The report will
lay blame on both pro-integration and pro-independence
forces, with greater guilt falling on the pro-Indonesian
side, Loeis said. Loeis added that Lt. General (Ret) Agus
Widjojo Tarmidzi, the Indonesian chair of the Commission and
Ambassador to East Timor in 1999, will face a tough task in
informing Indonesian leaders that the CTF concluded that such
serious human rights violations were committed by Indonesian
or pro-Indonesian forces. The report will include some
details on these violations, Loeis said.


3. (C) The institutions responsible will be primarily
militias, he said. There was no evidence that the GOI gave
instructions from the central level. In fact, the national
police had a policy to protect everyone threatened, he said.
In many cases, East Timor police simply abandoned their posts
to protect their own families and fled the country once law
and order broke down, not leaving enough forces to maintain
order. No individuals admitted any violations in testimony,
but the Commission was able to arrive at findings of
culpability through other evidence.


4. (C) Another breakthrough has been the East Timorese
side's willingness to admit that Fretelin independent forces
also were responsible for violations, which will be reflected
in the report, Loeis said.

RECONCILIATION AND REGRET?


5. (C) The Commission also is examining previous public
expressions of reconciliation and regret by the presidents of
the two countries. Loeis cited statements by East Timor's
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who in 2002 when he was
president, stated that Indonesia's Governor in East Timor in
1999, Abilio Soares, was not responsible for human rights
violations. The Commission also discovered an Indonesian
newspaper article from March 2000 in which President
Aburrahman Wahid apologized to the East Timorese in a public
speech he made in Dili, East Timor, on February 29. The
article in leading national newspaper "Kompas" quotes Wahid
as saying:

"I want to ask for forgiveness for all that has happened in
the past, to the families and friends of the victims of Santa
Cruz as well as the friends and families buried at the
National Heroes Cemetary. All were victims of things we did
not want. Hopefully, in the future this will not be
repeated...We all suffered the same suffering. You were
oppressed and we were oppressed...Hopefully, we can move on
from the past difficulities and suffering."


6. (C) Loeis said two more months of difficult deliberations
still await the Commission, but said he is satisfied with
progress made to date. The Indonesians and East Timorese
members of the Commission have "bonded" during their work and
the CTF is likely to produce a unanimous report, although he

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did not preclude the possibility of a minority opinion.

"BALIBO FIVE" KILLINGS


7. (C) In a separate matter not under the purview of the CTF
report, Loeis commented about the 1975 killing of several
foreign journalists in East Timor. He told DepPol/C about
his presence at a meeting in 1975 when Foreign Minister Adam
Malik was first briefed on the Indonesian military's killing
of two Australian, two British and one New Zealand journalist
in Balibo, East Timor. Loeis was a senior diplomat and the
notetaker for the meeting, he said. The GOI maintains that
the journalists were killed in cross-fire while others
maintain it was deliberate (ref B).


8. (C) Loeis said that Malik, Armed Forces Commander Maraden
Paggabean and other senior security officials, all expressed
shock at the news. One senior security official said the
military should have arrested the journalists instead so that
they could be questioned in Jakarta, Loeis recounted. Malik
was upset that what was supposed to be an easy conquest had
turned into such a quagmire while Panggabean was in tears
because so many of his troops were being killed, Loeis
recalled. Loeis said he had no direct knowledge of whether
the "Balibo Five" killings were intentional, but he suspects
they were and that there was a clumsy attempt at cover-up, he
said.
HUME