'SCMP' tells lies

The provocative story in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) published in your paper titled Battling brutality in East Timor (Sept. 25, 1999) was full of lies. It showed the immoral attitude of the paper in attempting to disgrace the Indonesian government and its people. The death of Sander Thoenes was not the responsibility of the Indonesian government nor the Indonesian Army but the full responsibility of the multinational peacekeeping force, especially the Australian contingent under Commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove.

The SCMP lied when it mentioned that the Indonesian soldiers opened fire. It was the Australian soldiers who opened fire when they tried to disperse the proindependence militias and the Falintil who were ransacking godowns of rice, etc. in Dili. The Indonesian government with the help of the Indonesian Army were working hard to help the thousands of refugees who were sheltering in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) especially in Kupang town area.

I would like to say to the SCMP management that Indonesia has been working endlessly to help the Timorese to become human beings in the truest sense of the word. Under the wicked Portuguese colonial rule which lasted for more than 450 years, the Timorese were no more than coolies and the region was extremely underdeveloped.

Indonesia saved the East Timorese from the brutality of the Portuguese and the civil war from 1974 to 1975. We are the nation who brought freedom and democracy to East Timor. No nation in the world can deny this.

MUHD, RAMZY HASIBUAN

Jakarta