A secret United Nations report into mass murder and crimes against humanity in East Timor has concluded that a two-month campaign of terror before the country voted for independence in 1999 was "planned and carried out by" the Indonesian army with militia participation. It was not, the report stresses, sporadic militia activity supported by maverick army generals as Indonesia has always maintained.

The report, leaked in Australia by the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, calls on the UN to establish an international tribunal to try named high-ranking personnel who are still serving in the Indonesian army. It concludes that while well over 1,000 people were killed, that figure could be much higher as the extent of the murders carried out in the region's interior has yet to be determined.

The report also calls on the UN to establish a system of compensation for victims of the atrocities.

One of its most significant conclusions deals with the role played by former Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto. For the first time the United Nations names Wiranto as having played a key role in the murder of more than 1,000 East Timorese, razing the region to the ground and imprisoning tens of thousands of displaced East Timorese in camps in West Timor, where some are still being detained.

"It is inconceivable that Gen Wiranto was not aware of the massive operation mounted by subordinate generals. The magnitude of the operation and the resources needed to conduct it would have required at least his condonement for it to have been carried out," the report says.

The UN is currently in talks with the Indonesian government on the issue of securing convictions for the genocide and human-rights abuses and it is understood that news of the sensitive nature of the leaked report had been suppressed from within the UN in order that those talks not be disrupted.

However, the conclusive findings and the naming of chief perpetrators in this report will now put the UN under immense pressure to look outside of the framework of those talks to secure convictions for the East Timor atrocities.

The strongly worded document firmly supports the long-held suspicion of NGOs and human rights organisations that the Indonesians played a key central role in arming, training, helping and facilitating pro-Indonesian militia in their campaign of terror against the 800,000-strong population of East Timor.

The report also suggests that convictions might never be secured within Indonesia, a fact which adds urgency to the establishment of an international tribunal. Last September the Indonesian government succumbed to overwhelming international pressure and released a list of lower-ranking army personnel it said were involved in what it argued was the militialed terror campaign in 1999.

However, that list of suspects was dismissed by the international community. It was pointed out in particular that it failed to name high-ranking officers and indeed the ommission of Gen Wiranto's name was seen as glaring.

But now a 60-page report compiled by former Australian diplomat Mr James Dunn after a five-month investigation points the finger squarely at Wiranto and his army colleagues, saying they condoned and even planned and supervised the terror campaign in the region.

Other Indonesian army figures named in the report as having played central roles in the systematic violence are Maj Gen Zacky Anwar Makarim and Maj Gen Adam Damiri, the former commander of East Timor. Damiri was named by the Indonesians in their list of suspects of last September.

"Several of the senior TNI [army] officers named in this report," it says, "not only sponsored the setting up of the militia, provided training, arms, money and in some cases drugs; they also encouraged its campaign of violence and organised the wave of destruction and deportation which occurred between 5 and 20 September [1999]."

Specifically, the report says the terror campaign was codenamed wiradharma and was commanded by officers of the Indonesian army's elite Kopassus units.

"The wave of violence led to killings, including mass murder, torture, abduction, sexual assault and assault against children, as well as mass deportation and forced dislocation."

The aim of the Indonesian terror campaign, the report says, was to crush completely the independence movement and have the 80 per cent pro-independence vote thrown out.

According to informed sources in Jakarta, it was planned to deport most of East Timor's population to West Timor. The planners seemed to believe the violence would persuade the MPR (Indonesia's assembly) to reject the outcome of the ballot.

It also concluded that thousands of East Timorese are still being forcibly detained in camps in West Timor and as a result "one of the most serious crimes against humanity being considered in this report is in fact still being perpetrated".

Last August the Indonesian government said all the camps would be closed within three to six months but nine months later those camps are still operating.

Reuters adds: East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao said yesterday it would be at least next year before the territory would be ready to take over its own affairs.

Gusmao was in Jakarta attending a conference with former Indonesian general Prabowo Subianto, a son-in-law of the former Indonesian dictator Gen Suharto, and head of the Kopassus army unit shortly after Suharto's downfall in 1998.