To the stew of conspiracy theories bubbling in today's Indonesia, the Habibie administration adds its own--that no one wants to believe them. "Everything we do comes out as disinformation," complains an official privy to negotiations over the territory of East Timor. "Nothing we do is right."

According to the official, such frustration lay behind last week's dramatic announcements from Jakarta: that after more than two decades of often brutal rule over the former Portuguese colony, Indonesia would consider granting East Timor independence; and that jailed rebel leader Xanana Gusmao would be transferred from prison to a facility in the capital. The administration, says the official, had simply run out of patience. In December Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, spiritual leader of the predominantly Catholic East Timorese, turned down an offer to meet Habibie to discuss autonomy talks. Two weeks later, the only Western country to recognize Indonesia's 1976 annexation of the territory--Australia--announced that it now favored self-determination. The twin rebuffs only reinforced a growing sense that the loss of East Timor would not fracture the Indonesian republic, and might even remove one obstacle to the foreign aid Jakarta so desperately needs. Foreign Minister Ali Alatas sounded almost exasperated when he announced he would ask the legislature to grant the territory independence if East Timorese were not satisfied with autonomy. "If they want to have their freedom, they are welcome," he declared.

Like many of the initiatives launched by the scattershot Habibie administration, however, the offer seemed too sudden and too simple. "This is too premature," says Bishop Belo. "This process has to be carried out respectfully." Belo's partner in the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, ex-journalist Jose Ramos-Horta, points out that Indonesia still stations an estimated 15,000 troops in the area and holds Gusmao in detention. Skeptics note, too, that for months, the military has allegedly been arming pro-Jakarta militias in East Timor; in the southern town of Suai, thousands of villagers were reportedly seeking shelter in local churches after vigilantes killed up to six civilians.

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