U.S. okayed RI's E. Timor invasion in '75: Document<\/p>\n
By Jim Wolf, Reuters, Washington<\/p>\n
U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
\ngave then Indonesian strongman Soeharto the green light for the
\n1975 invasion of East Timor that left perhaps 200,000 dead,
\naccording to previously secret documents made available on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
Kissinger has maintained that he only learned of the plan at
\nthe airport as he and Ford prepared to fly home after meeting
\nSoeharto in Jakarta on the eve of the Dec. 7 thrust into East
\nTimor, a former Portuguese colony.<\/p>\n
Kissinger also has argued that any U.S. nod for the action
\nshould be seen in its Cold War context -- on the heels of the
\ncommunist victory in Vietnam and amid U.S. fears that other
\n\"dominoes\" might fall in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
The incursion led to a bloody occupation that ended only after
\nan international peacekeeping force took charge in 1999 and East
\nTimor achieved independence.<\/p>\n
At the time of the 1975 invasion, the United States supplied
\nas much as 90 percent of Indonesia's weapons on condition that
\nthey be used only for defense and internal security.<\/p>\n
Ford and Kissinger appear to have gone to considerable lengths
\nto assure Soeharto, a staunch anti-communist, that they would not
\noppose the invasion, which was designed to keep East Timor from
\nbreaking away from Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"We want your understanding if we deem it necessary to take
\nrapid or drastic action,\" Soeharto told them during a stopover on
\ntheir way home from meetings with Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and
\nDeng Xiaoping in Beijing, according to a newly declassified Dec.
\n6, 1975, document.<\/p>\n
\"We will understand and will not press you on the issue,\" Ford
\nreplied, according to the State Department record of the
\nconversation declassified by Ford's presidential library.<\/p>\n
Kissinger pointed out that \"the use of U.S.-made arms could
\ncreate problems,\" but added: \"It depends on how we construe it;
\nwhether it is in self-defense or is a foreign operation,\"
\naccording to the same document.<\/p>\n
The private National Security Archive, a Washington-based
\nresearch group that obtained the document under the Freedom of
\nInformation Act, said it showed that Kissinger's concern was not
\nthat U.S. weapons would be used offensively -- hence illegally --
\nbut about how he might manipulate public opinion.<\/p>\n
\"It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly,\"
\nKissinger told Soeharto, according to the document. \"We would be
\nable to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens,
\nhappens after we return.\"<\/p>\n
\"We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I
\nam only saying that it would be better if it were done after we
\nreturned\" to Washington, Kissinger said, according to the
\ndocument.<\/p>\n
Ford's current chief of staff, Penny Circle, said the former
\npresident had no comment. Kissinger did not respond to requests
\nfor comment.<\/p>\n
The National Security Archive released a package of East
\nTimor-related documents, some of which had been made public
\nbefore but had been heavily censored. They can be accessed at the
\nNational Security Archive's Web site (www.nsarchive.org).<\/p>\n
In a Mar. 19, 1999, interview with WNYC Radio in New York,
\nKissinger denied having held substantive talks with Soeharto on
\nthe invasion plan, saying: \"We were told at the airport as we
\nleft Jakarta that either that day or the next day they intended
\nto take East Timor.\"<\/p>\n
He added, \"And it happened in a year when southeast Asia,
\nIndochina had collapsed. So it wasn't a question of approval but
\nof not being able to do anything about it.\"<\/p>\n
The newly disclosed material could raise new questions about
\nPresident George W. Bush's drive to resume sales of non-lethal
\nweapons to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Former President Bill Clinton cut off most military
\ncooperation after Indonesia's armed forces and paramilitary units
\nattacked East Timor in response to an Aug. 30, 1999, U.N.-
\nsponsored referendum in favor of independence.<\/p>\n
\"This is a critical time in relations between the West and the
\nMuslim world, and Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim
\ncountry,\" said Frida Berrigan of the New York-based World Policy
\nInstitute, author of an October report on U.S. weapons sales to
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
\"This new information should force the Bush administration to
\nmove cautiously in its dealings with an Indonesian government
\nstill largely dependent on the military to retain power,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>",
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