Downer praises East Timor efforts

Downer praises East Timor efforts

SYDNEY, Australia (AP): Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has praised the efforts of Indonesia's government in East Timor over the past six months despite reports that as many as 18,000 troops remain in the area.

Downer also rejected suggestions that Australia's intelligence agencies had failed to keep tabs on the extent of Indonesia's troop deployment in East Timor.

"They may or may not have done what they said they would do in terms of troop numbers," Downer told Australian television on Sunday. "But in broader terms I think the Indonesian government has done more over the last six months than they've done over the previous 23 years on the question of taking forward the East Timor peace process."

Documents leaked to the media last week indicated that Indonesia has failed to reduce the number of troops stationed in the disputed half-island territory despite President B.J. Habibie's personal promise to do so.

East Timor regional military chief of staff Lt. Col. Supadi said last week that the number of troops in East Timor now stands at 15,000 after around 1,000 were withdrawn in July and August.

Downer said Australia was still seeking verification of the documents, noting that Indonesia had made a number of statements since the documents were produced, leaving the question of troop numbers unclear.

Asked why Australia had to seek verification from Indonesia, Downer said: "I'm not going to say anything about intelligence but I'll put it to you this way, there have been rumors about troop numbers, there have been varied rumors."

Australia's ambassador spoke to the Indonesian government about troop numbers in East Timor on Oct. 21, Downer said.

Pressed on whether Australia's intelligence service advised the federal government what was happening or had failed to alert the government, Downer said: "I'm not telling you lies".

"I'm telling you that, understandably, no government is going to talk about intelligence but secondly, there have been rumors about troop numbers in East Timor which have suggested that the draw down of troops hasn't occurred to the extent the Indonesians said it would occur."

But Downer said it was not a sign of failure by intelligence sources. "There hasn't been a huge intelligence stuff-up, of course, but I'm not going to get into intelligence questions," said Downer. "It's neither fair on the Australian government nor the Australian people to try to get us to talk about those issues."