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nother WikiLeaks document on Indonesia appeared in The Age on Saturday, revealing the reasons for the US Embassy in Indonesia’s decision to turn down deputy defense minister Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin’s application for a visa to the US.

In 2009, Sjafrie, a senior adviser to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the time, was scheduled to accompany Yudhoyono to Pittsburgh to attend a G20 meeting. The US Embassy in Jakarta denied him the entry recommendation.

According to leaked embassy cables, the Jakarta embassy was about to issue a visa to Sjafrie but “advice” from the US Embassy in Dili, Timor Leste, led to the rejection.

The cables allege that Sjafrie, while serving as an Indonesian special forces commander in then East Timor, was responsible for directing the Santa Cruz cemetery massacre in 1991.

Sjafrie was also accused of being responsible for widespread violence committed by Indonesian troops in Dili after East Timor’s vote for independence in 1999.

In its communiqué, the US embassy in Dili said Sjafrie was responsible for acts of violence in 1991
and 1999.

Indonesian Defense Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

On Friday, Australian newspapers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald published WikiLeaks documents hinting that Yudhoyono abused his power upon taking office in 2004. It also claimed First Lady Kristiani Herawati used her husband’s influence by setting up several companies after Yudhoyono took office.

On Saturday, The Age also ran Yudhoyono’s denial in a piece titled “President rejects corruption claim”.

It also contained statement issued Friday by US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel, who said embassy reports to Washington were often “incomplete and unsubstantiated”.

Yudhoyono said it was regrettable the newspapers published the allegations without seeking his side of the story first. The Indonesian government and Yudhoyono aides were quick to publicly dismiss the reports as untrue.

Some critics, however, remain unconvinced.

Din Syamsudin the chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organization, said Saturday that Yudhoyono had to clarify the allegations in the articles in reference to abuse of power.

“The President must speak up. It’s not enough [to address the issue] through his spokespeople or aides because we know the President has spoken out on even small problems,” he said.

Din dismissed speculation the reports were an act of foreign intervention to topple the Indonesian government.

Foreign institutions have the freedom to publish data and facts, which the Indonesian government must counter through facts too, he added.

“If the President remains quiet by not providing clarification or filing a lawsuit, this incident will repeat itself, and it will send the message that the reports are true,” he said.