LAKSAMANA.Net, November 14, 2004 01:47 AM
Hendropriyono's Spy Games
Laksamana.Net - Former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Ahmad
Hendropriyono says Indonesian spies eavesdropped on phone calls by Australian
politicians and military figures during the 1999 East Timor crisis and unsuccessfully
tried to recruit Australian spies.
He also says the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was bugged and Indonesia had spies
working in Australia.
The retired lieutenant general made the revelations in an interview with Australia's Nine
Network's Sunday current affairs program.
Nine Network's website is yet to reveal full details of the interview until is aired later on
Sunday (14/11/04), but a promotional lead says "Hendropriyono tells how Indonesian
espionage operations against Australia have been more successful than has ever
been previously acknowledged".
Australian media reports provided more information, saying Hendropriyono admitted
he had never succeeded in recruiting Australians to betray their country. "Almost but
not quite," he was quoted as saying by The Sunday Telegraph.
He said that during the East Timor crisis - when the Indonesian military and its militia
proxies unleashed carnage during the territory's vote to secede from Indonesia - BIN
spied on Australian military personnel and politicians.
The East Timor mayhem was halted in late September 1999, following the arrival of a
United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping force led by Australia. Several xenophobic
Indonesian politicians and military figures condemned Australia for putting a stop to
the bloodbath.
Alan Behm, head of international policy for the Australian Defense Force during the
Timor crisis, said he was not surprised by Hendropriyono's admissions.
"They [Indonesia] certainly would have wanted to monitor what sort of forces Australia
was deploying to East Timor, and what the capabilities were," he was quoted as
saying by The Sunday Telegraph.
Hendropriyono claimed the spying had ceased and the two countries were working
together to combat terrorism.
But former Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) officer Warren Reed, told the
Sunday program that Indonesian spies had deeply penetrated ASIS and were
apparently able to obtain classified information.
The Australian Foreign Affairs Ministry has so far declined to comment on
Hendropriyono's allegations, apart from saying that such statements by foreign
intelligence agencies are not unusual.
Hendropriyono, a key loyalist of ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri, tendered his
resignation after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office on October 20.
His duties have been handed over to his deputy Asad Said until a successor is
appointed.
Shortly before Megawati lost office, she controversially rewarded Hendropriyono for his
loyalty by promoting him to the rank of honorary four-star general.
Hendropriyono was a key player in the war against terror, with BIN identifying and
arresting many suspected terrorists. But he has a controversial past, including alleged
links to the East Timor massacres and the brutal suppression of Muslims who
opposed the Suharto regime.
Before his resignation, he had demanded tougher laws and greater powers for
intelligence agencies to combat terror.
He was widely criticized in June 2004 when he had respected US human rights
advocate and terrorism expert Sidney Jones expelled from Indonesia.
Jones, the Indonesia director of the International Crisis Group (ICG), was forced to
leave the country because authorities had refused to extend her work visa after
Hendropriyono criticized her reports as "inaccurate" and branded her a "threat" to
national security.
Under Jones, the ICG produced more than a dozen in-depth reports on regional
terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah and on conflict areas such as Aceh, the Maluku
islands, Sulawesi and Papua.
Some of the critical reports pointed out the shortcomings of Indonesia's military and
intelligence agencies in dealing with terrorism and cited their involvement in rights
abuses. One report in particular stands out: The Ngruki Network in Indonesia, which
was published in August 2002 and is regarded as one of the most definitive pieces of
research on Jemaah Islamiyah.
One section of the report mentions that Hendropriyono led the 1989 massacre of an
estimated 100 civilians at a Muslim school in Lampung, southern Sumatra.
Despite his reputation as a ruthlessly efficient former member of the Army's notorious
Special Forces (Kopassus), Hendropriyono also has considerable political and
diplomatic skills. After a fall-out with Suharto, he subsequently became close to
ex-president B.J. Habibie and Megawati.
As Habibie's transmigration minister, Hendropriyono was accused by some foreign
journalists of playing a key role in funding the pro-Indonesia militia groups that went
on killing sprees in East Timor in 1999.
It remains to be seen whether he will ever be prosecuted for his alleged funding of the
militias before the independence referendum, and alleged funding of the forced
expulsion of much of East Timor's population after the ballot.
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