Associated Press - September 12, 1999
Jakarta -- After a week of chaos and terror in East Timor, Indonesia's powerful military boss sang "Feelings" on Sunday to show why he can't walk away from the independence-minded province.
To cheers from retired military officers at a party, Defense Minister Gen. Wiranto dedicated the song to foreign journalists: "I hope you have the same feelings, like me, for East Timor." His eyebrows arched in restrained emotion, Wiranto held the microphone in both hands and stood stiffly in a yellow batik shirt and crooned as a band played the 1975 hit popularized by Paul Williams:
"Feelings, nothing more than feelings, trying to forget my feelings of love." "Teardrops, rolling down on my face, trying to forget my feelings of love. Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it ... I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again." He hit all the high notes.
Wiranto earlier said Indonesia's army, which invaded East Timor in 1975, is profoundly attached to the former Portuguese colony and those residents who backed Indonesian rule.
The international community has condemned the military for aiding and directing anti-independence militias in a murderous rampage against East Timorese who voted in a UN-backed referendum to break away from Indonesia.