July 31, 1999
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| July 31, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Southeast Asia No spies in Timor, only a retired one JAKARTA - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has ruled out the possibility that Australian spies are operating in East Timor, but has admitted that a former Australian intelligence officer is working for the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET). "We are a decent country. You don't have to worry about us," Downer told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday. Downer confirmed that the former intelligence officer was working for UNAMET but declined to identify him. He said the man was no longer a member of the Australian defense forces, although he had once taught a military intelligence course in Australia. Like Downer, the Public Affairs Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, John Milne, refused to identify the retired intelligence officer. "I don't know, you'd better check with other sources," Milne said when asked for the name of the retired officer. Asked why the Australian government had not considered the possibility that the officer's presence in UNAMET might decrease the UN body's credibility, Downer said there was nothing extraordinary about the case. "There are a number of people working there [in UNAMET] who served in the military in their own countries, including Australia," he said. "This is fair enough . . . these people applied for the job and they made clear explanations about their backgrounds to the UNAMET." Referring to the impression that the Australian's presence had been kept secret, Downer said that, coincidentally, there was a certain UNAMET staffer in East Timor whom an Indonesian had recognized as being an instructor at an Australian intelligence training course. "But the fact is that the officer no longer teaches and no longer belongs to the Australian defense force. So there is no secret. We are not hiding anything. We are a transparant country." While both Downer and Milne refused to identify the man, a report in the Suara Pembaruan daily recently said that the name of the UNAMET staffer recognized by two Indonesians as an intelligence instructor was George Hermest Simon. The paper reported that Simon had seemed to hide his identity, denying that he recognized the two Indonesian police officers who identified him as their instructor when both of them trained in Australia. The two Indonesian officers were reportedly very sure that Simon, a civilian staffer in the political affairs section of UNAMET posted in the East Timor district of Suai, was their former instructor. Both of them affirmed that they had photographs of themselves with Simon. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said Thursday that Jakarta recognized the involvement of a former Australian intelligence officer in UNAMET. "We have gotten the report on the involvement from our task force in East Timor," he said. In response to a question, the minister said the Indonesian government had no objection to the retired intelligence officer's involvement in the UN mission. He did not mention the name of the officer nor elaborate on how much Jakarta knew about him. Downer left Jakarta for Bali on Thursday for an overnight stay, prior to a 24-hour visit to East Timor. During his visit to Jakarta, he met President B.J. Habibie, Defense Minister/Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto, the leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the leader of the biggest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama Abdurrahman Wahid, and Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao. (Asia Pulse/ANTARA) | |||||||||
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