11th July 2008. Indonesian Foreign Affairs spokesman Teuku Faiza Syah said the East Timor Indonesia Commission on Truth and Friendship was set up to help the countries move forward. "Past history has been a burden for a long time,", he said. "We have to get rid of it so that we can look to the future better. Because this is a mutually agreed (commission) then we will accept the whole report, completely."
He said Indonesia had given its "trust" so it had "an obligation and moral necessity towards the contents of it." The long-awaited truth and reconciliation commission report on violence in East Timor says Indonesia was overwhelmingly responsible for human rights abuses, including murder, rape and torture. The bilateral truth and friendship commission, launched in 2000, has concluded its final report, deciding that Indonesia's military, police and government systematically supported, funded, armed and cooperated with anti-independence militias at the time of the independence referendum in 1999.
Before the referendum on August 30, 1999, pro-Indonesian militias harassed and intimidated those supporting independence. The result was announced on September 4, showing an overwhelming majority of East Timorese people wanted independence. Militias, supported by the Indonesian police and military then embarked on a scorched-earth policy of murder, burning and looting, forcibly evacuating many East Timorese residents to West Timor. More than 1000 people died. Australian troops landed in East Timor on September 20, launching the INTERFET operation to restore order.
Indonesia consistently denied any role in the unrest. The 300-page report, leaked to some media organisations, found that gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity did occur, including murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, illegal detention directed against civilians. The report will be officially handed to the presidents of East Timor and Indonesia next wek.
