Wiranto and Timor Leste

In the commentary Wiranto must face the storm by Pitan Daslani (The Jakarta Post, April, 26) there appears a truly astonishing paragraph, "Everybody put the blame on Wiranto as well as the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the police, despite their self- sacrificing devotion to the conception of the Republic of Timor Leste."

Self-sacrificing devotion? Pardon me? They were devoted to bringing to the new state into being? This flies in the face of all the evidence. It is an insult to the intelligence.

I suggest Pitan just sits down and coolly examines the record, which will show that Wiranto and TNI were instrumental in the creation and sustenance of the murderous pro-Jakarta militias such as attacks led by the self-proclaimed nationalist hero Eurico Gutteres and these militias were abetted throughout by the Indonesian Military, in particular units such as Battalions 744 and 745.

Command responsibility rested with Wiranto as the head of the Armed Forces at the time, as any international court would readily prove. I suggest that Pitan goes back and looks at some of the news footage of the time and sees for himself how Indonesian soldiers and police simply stood by and let the militias burn, loot and kill.

The Indonesian security forces were wholly responsible for this situation. East Timor was, after all, under martial law at the time!

What Wiranto's book says I do not know but I can readily guess. It will be the usual gruel of obfuscation and plausible denial, the workings of a very dishonest mind.

DAVID JARDINE Jakarta