Documents show Australia knew of E. Timor attack
Documents show Australia knew of E. Timor attack
CANBERRA (Agencies): Australia knew in advance of the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor and stood by for three days while Jakarta troops readied for the bloody event, secret documents released by the government revealed on Tuesday.
An 885-page book of memos, cables and letters sent and received by Australia's foreign department between 1974 and 1976 confirmed what sporadic leaks and published recollections of the period have charged -- that Australia gave tacit approval to Jakarta to annex the neighboring former Portuguese colony.
East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence last year and is under temporary United Nations control after the referendum triggered a wave of violence by pro-Jakarta militias.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said the release of the documents, which do not include cabinet or intelligence files from the period, would help clear the air over what is considered to be one of the most controversial events of Australian history.
The documents, released four to six years ahead of the usual 30-year wait, showed Australia's embassy in Jakarta received full details from Indonesia of the timing of an attack on the Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975 -- three days before it occurred.
Five Australian journalists were killed in the assault.
Downer said the documents show the then-Labor government of Gough Whitlam had advance warning of the attack, but there was no evidence Australia could have prevented the journalists' deaths.
Mystery still surrounds how the five died, and who killed them near the town of Balibo, on the East Timorese side of the border.
"There's a full selection of documents on this matter published in this volume, including some suggested earlier to be missing," Downer told reporters.
"I myself pass no judgment on these documents other than to state that the Department of Foreign Affairs had no information beforehand of any intentions to kill the journalists, although it did have prior knowledge of the planned invasion," Downer said at the official release of the documents.
Australia's two key political parties, the left-leaning Labor and right-leaning Liberals, have come under fire for their actions during the period.
Whitlam's Labor government was in office when Indonesia's then president Soeharto ordered the invasion of East Timor, and Malcolm Fraser's Liberal/National coalition was in power when Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976.
Cabinet debate from the time will not be known until the 30- year waiting period is up, and Downer said intelligence reports might never be released for reasons of national security.
Recognition
Australia was the only western nation to recognize Indonesia's rule over East Timor.
Human rights groups said up to 200,000 people died during the invasion and subsequent fighting and famine in East Timor, sparked by Portugal's withdrawal in 1975 from its former colony.
Indonesia and its Western allies reacted to the withdrawal with alarm, fearing pro-communist East Timorese were taking over and another communist stronghold would emerge in the region, months after the fall of Saigon to communist North Vietnam.
Soeharto also had tacit U.S. support for the invasion, which took place just after a visit by then President Gerald Ford.
With the Vietnam War fresh in mind, Australia told Jakarta it did not want to get involved in East Timor -- a territory it had once called "an essay in the hopeless". Critics said that decision gave Soeharto a green light to invade.
"While preferring the integration of Portuguese Timor with Indonesia, the Whitlam government wished there to be a genuine act of self-determination in the territory," Downer said.
Indonesian forces withdrew from East Timor last year after a 25-year guerrilla war and a bloody rampage by pro-Jakarta militias following the announcement that the population had voted overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-held referendum on Aug. 30.
East Timor is now set to become the world's newest independent nation within two years, after the current United Nations administration hands over power.
Former Australian diplomat James Dunn said the release of the secret diplomatic cables showed Australia's policy towards Indonesia's annexation of East Timor was "ill-conceived and utterly unrealistic".
Dunn was Australia's consul to East Timor when it was a colonial outpost of Portugal.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said in a statement that the collection of documents "falls well short of the comprehensive release of records required in the public interest and bears the taint of political partisanship.