British hawks in East Timor

Sir, - Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, January 26th) states: "the barbarities perpetrated in East Timor came to be symbolised…

Sir, - Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, January 26th) states: "the barbarities perpetrated in East Timor came to be symbolised by the Indonesian purchase of a few British Hawk aircraft - which were in fact of little or no use in sustaining Indonesian rule there." This assertion is erroneous, given that air power was fundamental to the 24-year campaign by the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) to subdue East Timor.

Three years into the invasion in 1978, much of the island, a classic guerilla terrain of mountain and forest, was still held by the nationalist "Fretelin" rebels.

Indonesia purchased weapons from "the West" precisely because its produce had recently proved its destructive capabilities in nearby Indo-China. While travelling in rural East Timor last year, we spoke to numerous villagers who reported that, once land troops were discarded in favour of Western-supplied aircraft, the majority of the 200,000 deaths took place.

In July 1996, Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, told a British court that British Hawks were integral to the "Bandung Squadron" whose counter-insurgency role in Timor (and West Papua and Aceh) is fundamentally aimed at civilian targets. The use of Hawks is also documented by the London-based human rights watch body, TAPOL, whose co-ordinator was for years a prisoner of the Indonesian regime.

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British Aerospace began selling Hawks to Indonesia at the height of the genocide in 1978, when Robin Cook's "ethical" predecessor, David Owen, claimed reports of atrocity were "exaggerated".

In 1980, with much of the original Fretelin leadership dead, the movement revived under the celebrated Xanana Gusmao, prompting a fresh ABRI offensive, Operasi Keamanan (Final Sweep) in the island's Viqueque and Los Palos areas.

Last April, we managed to clandestinely contact "Faustino", a Fretelin fighter since 1977, who told us he had seen Hawks in action in 1981. Doubtless, he would have reported the presence of Soviet Migs or Israeli Kfir jets, had they been there. Although British politicians and arms dealers have consistently asserted the Hawks are used only for "training purposes", neither Mr Myers nor ourselves nor any foreign journalists were witness to the ABRI offensives of 25 years ago. However, the testament of an actual combatant in any war is usually more truthful than the bland assurances of a politician, however "ethical". - Yours, etc.,

Sean Steele, Tom Farrell, Elm Mount Road, Dublin 9.