Australian S.a.s. Diggers Trained Me

[Georgie-Porgie]

Australian S.A.S. Diggers trained me, says East Timorese nun-killing accused

AN EAST Timorese militia leader who served in the Indonesian army's special forces and is now on trial for war crimes, including the murder of a nun, has testified that he received military training from Australian soldiers.

He has told a Dili war crimes hearing that he played the role of a Falintil pro-independence guerilla in a training exercise involving Australian and Indonesian troops in Java in 1993.

Joni Marques, 37, helped the Indonesian military set up in 1986 Team Alpha, one of the first pro-Indonesian militias in East Timor and was recruited to Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces.

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN SATURDAY AUGUST 11 2001 53

"Diggers trained me: war crimes accused"

By Mark Dodd in DILI and

Craig Skehan in CANBERRA

Australian military sources said the Australian unit most likely to have been involved in the exercise was the elite Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment.

The SAS took part in several exercises with Kopassus in the early 1990s.

An SAS Regiment spokesman declined to comment on whether anyone linked to Timorese militia had been involved in training. It is not the regiment's policy to comment on its training activities.

Australia abandoned the exercises in 1998 after months of damaging publicity over the Indonesian unit's human rights record. Kopassus is accused of widespread abuse in East Timor, Aceh, Irian Jaya (West Papua) and elsewhere.

A Defence Department spokesman, Tim Bloomfield, said it was a matter of record that the Australian Defence Force trained Indonesian army personnel but he said: "It was not until 1998 that there were militias as we now know them."

"We certainly have not trained any militias," he said.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said questions about training Indonesian personnel by Australia were a matter for the former Labor government and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, who was defence minister at the time.

But the former Labor government foreign affairs minister, Gareth Evans, said last month "many of our earlier training efforts helped only to produce more professional human rights abusers."

Testifying in East Timor's first war crimes trial on July 11, Mr Marques, an East Timorese, did not identify the Australian unit involved in his training. He said that in war games devised by the Australians he had played an East Timorese independence (Falintil) guerilla being pursued by Australian troops.

Mr Marques is one of 10 defendants, all members of Team Alpha, which he commanded, facing 13 counts of murder, assault, kidnapping, torture, persecution and forced deportation of civilians between April and September 1999.

A serving member of Kopassus, Lt Saiful Anwar, is also charged. He is believed to be at large in Indonesia.

The prosecution alleges Mr Marques participated in the torture and murder of Evaristo Lopes, a member of Falintil, in April 1999. He allegedly also planned the ambush and murder of a group of clergy, church workers, an Indonesian journalist and a teenage boy near Los Palos on September 25, 1999.

He is accused of shooting dead a wounded nun at point blank range.

In court, Mr Marques testified he had been selected for specialist training by the former Kopassus commander, Lt-Gen. Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of disgraced former president Suharto.

He said the training took place in 1984 at Los Palos and Bandung, Java, in 1993. Australian soldiers were involved in the Bandung training.

Asked by public defender Siphosami Malunga how the training was conducted, Mr Marques replied: "It was guerilla warfare. We trained together."

Asked about his specific role in the training, he said: "At the time my role was as a Fretilin (independence guerilla) member in the training."

Mr Malunga: "In the exercise, what was the Australian army's role?"

Mr Marques: "The Australian troops tried to catch me."

SAS training involves anti-terrorism, clandestine operations, counter-insurgency, surveillance and demolition.

-- SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

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The West Australian, "Diggers trained me: war crimes accused" by Mark Dodd and Craig Skehan, Saturday August 11 2001, p. 53

© 2001 West Australian Newspapers Limited