Jose Ramos Horta, the special representative of the National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM), has condemned the Australian government over the country's increasing military ties with Indonesia's "regime of terror", and described the minister for defence Senator Robert Ray and the minister for foreign affairs Senator Gareth Evans, as "terrorists".
Horta was commenting to Green Left Weekly on Indonesia's upcoming participation in the Australian military exercise Kangaroo '95, and the training of Indonesia's notorious Kopassus (special service) troops by Australia's elite Special Air Service Regiment at Campbell Barracks in Perth last year.
Horta said that intelligence reports show that there are currently 5000 Kopassus troops throughout East Timor. "They are engaged in the most brutal military operations", he said and described them as "among the most brutal, efficient murderers", responsible for everything that has happened in East Timor since the 1975 invasion, including the 1991 Dili massacre and 1983 Karas massacre.
This will be the first time that countries outside of Australia, New Zealand and the United States participate in the three-yearly "Kangaroo" exercise. The government has also invited Singapore, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea to participate.
Robert Ray was questioned in federal parliament in March, and again in November, about the training of Kopassus troops and Indonesia's participation in Kangaroo '95. His reply was that the training of any regional defence personnel aimed to "foster a regional defence relationship", not improve that country's capability of dealing with "internal security matters".
Horta saw the situation differently, "Senator Ray and Gareth Evans are both terrorists. They have blood on their hands; they have provided training to the Indonesian military. Terrorists are not only the ones who use hand grenades and Kalashnikovs and kill civilians. Terrorists are those who directly allow state terrorism to take place. Indonesia has been practising state terrorism in East Timor for 19 years. The regime is a regime of terror, for the past 30 years, since its existence."
Horta continued, "Senator Ray has threatened to take me to court and I am still waiting for that ... I will prove to the eyes of the Australian people, to the world, not only is he a liar, but also Gareth Evans, Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Bill Hayden, Gough Whitlam, all of them, all these years have been lying to the Australian people about the tragedy in East Timor. I would subpoena intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Department of Defence documentation to prove my point."
Horta says that, like the US in Vietnam, the Indonesian military have never understood their enemy. "If you kill my brother, the souls of my family will cause me to seek justice; that is the force, the driving force, of the resistance."