Indonesia: Former army chief comments on Timor rights investigation body BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 25, 2001

Text of report by Indonesian newspaper Kompas Cyber Media web site (www.kompas.com) on 25 May

Jakarta: Former ABRI [Indonesian Armed Forces] commander Gen (retd) Wiranto said the Commission Investigating Human Rights Violations [KPP-HAM] in East Timor was actually formed to counter [received in English] claims there were violations committed by pro-integrationists, TNI [Indonesian National Military Forces] and Polri [National Police]. However, when contacted separately on Thursday (24 May), the former head of KPP-HAM East Timor, Albert Hasibuan, denied Wiranto's statement. "That is simply untrue, the commission was not formed to counter international pressure. The commission operated with no prejudice. After our investigations it was obvious there had been some serious violations of human rights," said Hasibuan.

Wiranto's statement was made during a discussion of Suhardi Somomoeljono's book entitled "Analysis of the juridical response to the international conspiracy on East Timor" in Jakarta on Wednesday (23 May). According to Wiranto, the commission was actually formed to convince the international community that there had been no violations in East Timor following the ballot. However, it ended up the commission's findings reaffirmed international claims...

Not a violation

Besides Wiranto, other speakers included international legal experts Prof Budi Harsono and Suhardi. Budi claimed that the actions of pro-integrationists including the burning down of homes/buildings and murder were not, as claimed by the international community, a violation of human rights. Under international law these actions are seen as a "provoked act of retaliation". Their actions were in response to illegal provocation, which included the pro-independence side and the international community rigging referendum results. [passage omitted on Budi comparing it to when the United States dropped an atom bomb on Japan in 1945 in retaliation for Pearl Harbour.]

Members of KPP-HAM have already sent the results of their investigations to the Attorney General's office which resulted in 19 military and police officers and a number of militia being named as suspects. The dossiers can not be authorized as the ad hoc human rights tribunal has not yet been formed.

Hasibuan has called on the Attorney General's Office to take the cases to court immediately so they can be investigated.

Annoying

According to Wiranto, the idea of forming a KPP-HAM on East Timor was proposed during a meeting between former President B.J. Habibie, former Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and the former Chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Marzuki Darusman. "If up until now we are still accused of human rights violations, yes, it's annoying. When the commission completed their work there was a change of government," Wiranto said.

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