The Timor Man (51 page)

“Thank you, General. ”

Anderson
prepared to depart with the officer but the huge framed man indicated that he was to remain.

“John. Tell me what you really think will happen, totally off the record,” he asked when they were alone.

Anderson
took a long slow breath and settled back into the comfortable guest chair.

“The Indonesians will grab at the opportunity, but world opinion will not be kind to them as Portugal has already recognized the declarations of independence in other former colonies, such as Angola and Mozambique. ”

“Well, we all know what's happening in Angola,”the Prime Minister said unhappily.

“The way I see it, it really is a matter of how well we in Australia support the Indonesians and keep the press off their backs. ”

At the mention of the newspapers the Prime Minister's nostrils flared. There was little love lost between his office and Australia's press moguls who denigrated him and his colleagues at every opportunity. They were all too aware of the government's philosophy and the party line regarding the press and the power its owners wielded. He had agreed prior to taking office to settle a few old scores should the opportunity arise.

“I will speak to them myself,” he advised.

Surprised, Anderson's expression amused his superior.

“Everybody needs somebody sometime, John, you of all people considering your profession should understand the necessity for compromise. It's not just politicians who prostitute themselves, you know. ”

Embarrassed at the comment Anderson remained silent.

“What would happen if we suggested a Kennedy-style blockade of the island?”

“Nothing. We don't have the fire-power and neither do the Indonesians. It is unlikely that the Malaysians or the Singaporeans could muster enough shipping to assist. And I wouldn't recommend that we even suggest this alternative to the Filipinos as any participation on their part would agitate the Indonesians and we could well end up with an expanded regional conflict. ”

“You realize that in my capacity as Prime Minister I am privy to all the activities of your department?”

“Certainly. We never burned any files. ”

The Prime Minister looked coldly at the bureaucrat.

“No one is suggesting that your office did. However, you are aware that there is considerable pressure from within the Attorney-General's Department to isolate these activities and bring them directly under the control of defence?”

Anderson
had anticipated the possibility, although he dreaded any such action.

“That would cost us the integrity of our operational arm, which has taken considerable time, funding and effort to establish, Prime Minister. ”

“What can you do with this team to assist alleviate the current crisis over Timor?”

“We could certainly improve our lines of communication which, as we've observed today, are totally inadequate due to insufficient funding. We could position a vessel close enough to act as a communications centre and place a team on the ground. ”

“How would you execute this plan?”

“We will seek the assistance of the so-called ‘Press Barons' as cover in exchange for the direct flow of non-essential information to the newspapers.”

“You believe this is achievable?”

“I will put something together immediately. ” “John.”

“Sir?”

“Don't screw this up. We don't want any bodies and we can't afford any more skeletons. ”

Anderson
nodded slowly as he rose.

“With your permission, I would like to liaise with the General.‘'

 
“No. I don't feel comfortable with that. If the requirement arises, deal directly through this office. ”

Anderson
agreed, excused himself and returned directly to his offices by commonwealth car. Ignoring the PM's instructions, he had his secretary leave a message for the General to contact him urgently upon his return from the Indonesian Embassy, then settled back to devise a plan which would place his clandestine section in a more secure and potentially powerful position for the future.

 

Later that day Indonesia's Ambassador to Australia sent an encrypted radio communication from Canberra to Jakarta. The message was picked up by one of the Defence Department's listening posts, recorded, and dispatched to Melbourne for deciphering.

The Indonesian codes were simple and often a transcript of a coded message would be on the desk of the duty officer at the operational centre of Anderson's headquarters even before the Indonesians had received their own radio message at BAKIN in Jakarta.

The message read:

 

MOST SECRET BAPAK DJENDERAL NATHAN SEDA DIREKTUR/ COVERT/OPS BAKIN DATE: 28 NOV 1975 FROM AMBASSADOR INDONESIAN EMBASSY/CANBERRA. TEXT: AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEEPLY CONCERNED INSTABILITY CREATED BY FRETILIN UPRISING AND THREAT TO REGION PEACE. AUSTRALIANS CONFIRM THAT THEY WILL SUPPORT INDONESIAN ANNEXATION OF TIMOR-TIMUR AND ADVISE THAT AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC OPINION WILL ALSO SUPPORT SUCH AN ENTRY INTO TIMOR-TIMUR. THEIR PRIME MINISTER HAS ADVISED THAT THEY OFFER MILITARY SUPPORT SHOULD WE REQUEST SAME. MEETING HAS BEEN REQUESTED WITH BAPAK PRESIDENT SOEHARTO EITHER HERE IN AUSTRALIA OR IN INDONESIA. SIGNED: COLONEL SUPRAPTO N2337339 ON BEHALF OF AMBASSADOR. MESSAGE ENDS: MOST SECRET

 

    
Nathan Seda considered the communication now on his desk looking mockingly back at him. This was developing into an impossible situation. The Australians were acting out of character involving themselves in what he viewed as a simple case of a sovereign state declaring itself independent. Should the contents of the message become public knowledge then this would encourage the Indonesian High Command to march directly into Dili without fear of international condemnation.

For Seda and the FRETILIN forces this would be a major catastrophe. They did not have the manpower to defend themselves against the might of the Indonesian combined Armed Forces. He could not accept that the Australian Government did not support the Declaration of Independence nor did they recognize the Portuguese announcement that their former colony must not be annexed by Indonesia.

Something was dreadfully wrong. He had to think. There had to be a way of slowing the Indonesian attempts to seize the other half of Timor without interfering with the process of establishing the new Government quickly. Then there was the other signal he had received. The Americans were discussing putting a hold on the squadron of Broncos due for delivery.

This was favourable news as the OV-10Fs were equipped with twenty millimetre canon and air-to-ground missiles. These aircraft were an obvious choice for AURI to use in the event the Government declared war on the FRETILIN army, as the Broncos were a superior counter-insurgency strike aircraft which, Seda knew, had been modified for the Indonesian Air Force with the latest laser controlled missile launch systems. Should the Indonesians succeed in convincing the American Government to deliver these aircraft then resistance, he knew, would be futile against such machines. The Australian Sabres AURI acquired would need urgent modifications to handle the new air-to-ground missiles if they were also to be used.

What was confusing was the change of attitude on behalf of the Australians as his sources had confirmed just days earlier that the Royal Australian Air Force had refused any assistance with a refit to the Sabres to provide for missile capability. He had come a long way and could not permit this opportunity to lapse. There had to be some way of keeping the Australians out of the conflict.

Seda realized that the Indonesians would mobilize quickly once they understood that public opinion was not against their entering its small neighbour's territory. He had to eliminate this support. He must prepare a plan with immediate effect.

Seda sat deep in thought. He continued to do so through the evening and well into the next morning. He did not sleep.

It wasn't until another week had passed that an idea began to formulate in his mind and, after considering the ramifications of the bold step he was about to take and when he believed that the timing was appropriate, Seda put the plan into action.

The General called Umar Suharjo.

 

Bambang was proud to be amongst the soldiers whose units had been selected to protect the Indonesian Timor borders. He could see that the others felt the same way from the gait in their walk, and the confidence they exuded. This is what they had been trained to do.

They had all been briefed. A group of terrorists calling themselves the Front for the Liberation of East Timor had run amok across the border, butchering women and children, and were now threatening to cross the border
en masse
and destroy the Indonesian villages there. They were soldiers and their duty was to protect their country. He was not afraid. Bambang wished his sister, Wanti could see him now. She would be so proud of him!

The C130E transport had lifted them out of Surabaya for the long haul across the East Nusatanggara Lesser Archipelago, crossing over Bali before continuing on through hours of monotonous airborne travel until finally disembarking at Kupang.

The landing was, in itself a feat, considering the unsealed landing strip! His colleagues had joked with him in the mess where they hurriedly gulped down a large serving of steamed rice and
rendang
. The officers and men in this Command ate exactly the same food.

The airstrip in Kupang had a bad reputation and, in fact, should not have been used for aircraft the size of the Hercules which he now found himself in, winging his way towards his first real military adventure. The others were equally excited. One thousand soldiers had already been airlifted and rumour had it that there would be as many as twenty thousand KOPASGAT, the elite quick-action commando troops, to backup the ground forces. They had a history to live up to. Theirs had been the forces first to strike fear into the hearts of the Malay soldiers when they had courageously attacked the superior forces during the
Konfrontasi
period under
Bung Karno
, their first President. And they had also been with the forward troops when their Command had bravely jumped from the ancient C-47s into West Irian to liberate that province from the Dutch soldiers. This action would be just as swift, perhaps not even lasting one week!

There wasn't a command within the Republik as competent as theirs! They were well equipped.

The senior officers had told them that the basic training the men in this command had undergone was as superior as that of the British commandos.

Their training had kept them all fit and Bambang could not understand the necessity for sending so many of their superior number against a raggedy bunch of peasant rebels from across the border in what was known to be one of the poorest areas in the region.

He rubbed the two gold stars on his shoulder for luck as they prepared to land. As the enormous transport bumped along the grass runway the soldiers cried out in unison
“Merdeka! Merdeka!”
Freedom! Freedom! and sang their battalion's song of courage.

 

The aircraft landed with a squeal of burning rubber as the tyres took up the momentum of the aircraft's touching down on the red, hard baked clay airstrip. As Bambang followed the other young soldiers, his eyes opened in incredulity as he counted four more of the massive transport planes also disembarking troops and supplies. Across the fields he could see the already erected tents of the different divisional encampments. He had never seen so many troops in one place anywhere before.

As they strutted across the hard-standing surface jammed with jeeps, crates of supplies and platoons of soldiers working on their delegated unloading and loading assignments, one of the non-coms barked an order from behind and immediately the paratroopers broke into double time.

As
Letnan Satu
Bambang and the other junior officers filled with excitement, he never even considered the irony of the date of his own arrival in Indonesian West Timor. It was the first day of October, 1975.

Exactly ten years to the day when Indonesia suffered the abortive Communist
coup d'état
. And its bloody aftermath under Soeharto.

 

Anderson was annoyed with the arrogance of the media baron. He was rude and manifested the ruthlessness for which he was renowned in every movement, in each gesticulation he made as he waved his arms from the elbow down, in pontifical manner, ignoring the cigar's threatening path as he demonstrated his point.

“Tell him to shove it!” was his reaction to the offer.

This man was tough. He acted tough, played tough, and had a reputation second to none for achieving his aims when it came to corporate acquisitions. There had been rumours, only rumours, that he also had direct links with the underworld element, but there wasn't a soul in either Sydney or Melbourne who would allude to this publicly.