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By James Balowski In what the establishment media have enthusiastically described as "securing a major strategic and diplomatic coup", on December 18 the Australian and Indonesian governments signed the first formal security treaty between the two countries. Titled the Indonesia Australia Agreement on Maintaining Security, the treaty commits both countries to "consult" each other if one is attacked and to "consider measures" to assist. Unlike the ANZUS treaty with the US and New Zealand, however, it does not require either party to defend the other. In addition, it formalises regular ministerial consultations on matters affecting joint security and promotes cooperation in the security field. News of the treaty angered East Timor groups, which organised protests in Melbourne and Sydney the following day. Concerns have also been raised over the reference in the treaty to "adverse challenges". Some believe that this leaves open the possibility of Australia becoming involved in Indonesia's internal security matters such as East Timor. Foreign minister Gareth Evans has admitted to problems with the wording, but said that security must be interpreted in the context of "regional instability", the emphasis being on terrorism and drug trafficking. Earlier, however, Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas nominated three potential conflicts which could be of mutual concern — China and Taiwan, Korea and the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. In a letter to the December 23 Jakarta daily Kompas, ex-general Sumitro also mentioned security problems such as narcotics and terrorism, but added another — the threat of "communist subversion etc". Sumitro, who led the notorious security agency Kopkamtib, also referred to "Indonesia and Malaysia's experience in handling communism". Despite any ambiguity in the wording, the treaty formalises a long and sordid history of military cooperation between Australian and Indonesia. In 1956, when the Indonesian Communist Party and the left were growing fast, right-wing military commanders staged local coups on the islands of Sumatra and Sulawesi. Both the US and Australia assisted the revolts with supplies and equipment. Recently declassified documents indicate that the Australian government was also complicit in the 1965 counter-revolution led by then Major-General Suharto, in which as many as 1 million communists and left-wing sympathisers were slaughtered and hundreds of thousands of others jailed. In talks with President Suharto prior to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1974, and again in 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam made it quite clear that Australia favoured the integration of East Timor with Indonesia. A number of documents reveal that while publicly opposing the use of force — even when it was obvious that the Indonesian invasion had begun in earnest — the Australian government did its best to play down the public impact of the Indonesian government's terror campaign while it privately supported the Jakarta regime. Later, the Fraser government cooperated with the Suharto regime to the extent of closing down a two-way radio link between Darwin and the East Timorese resistance. When a new radio link was established by Australian supporters, they were arrested and the radio seized. In 1978, Australia became the only Western nation to give de jure recognition of Indonesia's incorporation of East Timor. Despite the carnage in East Timor, the Australian government stepped up its supply of military aircraft to Indonesia. In March 1978, it donated 12 Bell Sioux helicopters, plus facilities for the training of Indonesian service personnel. Three months later, it supplied six Nomad Searchmaster planes, fitted with ground and sea surveillance radar. These were in addition to six which had already been donated. This "aid" was given despite reports that the earlier planes were being used for offensive surveillance against Fretilin. In 1990, Australia began providing training for small numbers of Indonesian troops, and this was projected to increase to 275 by the end of 1995-96. Among them have been members of the commando Kopassus forces, which have been at the forefront of the brutal occupation in East Timor. Including the Kangaroo '95 joint exercises last year, since 1992 there have been at least eight Australian military exercises with Indonesia. The increasing cooperation with Jakarta is also evident from the 1994-95 budget estimates. These indicated that official spending on bilateral military cooperation with Indonesia was to more than double compared with the previous year, from $2,217,000 to $4,665,000. Max Lane, national coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia (AKSI) and Democratic Socialist spokesperson for foreign affairs, told Â鶹´«Ã½ that the signing of the treaty highlights the Labor government's hypocrisy in its dealings with Indonesia. "Evans and Keating are pushing the line that Australia wants to be 'more integrated with Asia'. The reality is that they want to integrate themselves with Asia's and, in particular, Indonesia's ruling classes. They are motived by business interests at the expense of human rights".