A high-ranking member of the Australian army's crack intelligence squad has accused the Australian government of having suppressed information on government-sponsored violence in East Timor which could have prevented the massacre of at least 47 East Timorese in September 1999.
Capt Andrew Plunkett of the 3RAR squadron also said Australian soldiers were under orders to underestimate the number of East Timorese murdered in some atrocities in a bid to maintain working relations between the Australian and Indonesian governments.
In an interview with SBS TV's Dateline programme yesterday he said his government "got it wrong" on who the perpetrators of violence were in East Timor in 1999. He said the Australian government was unwilling to accept its policies had been ill-informed.
The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, denied his government suppressed information. He told the Dateline programme he believed the violence of 1999 was not the work of the Indonesian forces acting hand in glove with militia forces as recently leaked reports from the UN and even the Indonesian government have suggested. Rather, he said, rogue Indonesian army and police elements worked with the militia in planning and carrying out the violence.
Around 1,000 people are thought to have lost their lives before and after the country's vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999.
Capt Plunkett (31), one of the highest-ranking intelligence officers in the Australian army, holds the Infantry Combat Medal, Active Service Medal and an Interfet Campaign Medal for his work in East Timor.
He said the massacre of the 47 pro-independence East Timorese at a police station in Maliana would have been avoided if the intelligence gathered by his men had been passed on to UN forces on the ground.
The information gathered detailed how the Indonesian army, police and pro-Indonesia militia forces planned the massacre at Maliana in 1999.
Capt Plunkett said before that intelligence was gathered Australian personnel in Maliana were unaware of the link between the militia and police and had encouraged East Timorese to go to the police if they were intimidated by the militia.
