Indonesian representative in East Timor regrets calls for rights tribunal BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 3, 2001

Source: Kompas Cyber Media web site, Jakarta, in Indonesian 3 Sep 01

Text of report by Indonesian newspaper Kompas Cyber Media web site (www.kompas.com) on 3 September

Dili: Head of the Office for Indonesian Affairs (Kukri) in Dili, Kristio Wahyono, regrets there are still those pushing the UN to form an international tribunal for human rights in Timor Lorosae (East Timor). He claimed that the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, had already given the Indonesian government the opportunity to try the human rights violators themselves.

Kristio Wahyono made this statement to reporters on Sunday (2 September). Those pushing for the international tribunal come from East Timor and the international community and demonstrated on 17 August in Dili over the issue.

He claimed he paid no attention to the demonstration because it was a well-known fact that Indonesia was going to organize a tribunal on human rights violations in East Timor at the end of the year. The cases to be looked at included the attack and murder at Manuel Carrascalao's home, the attack on Bishop Belo's home and the massacres at Liquica church and Suai.

Kristio said Timor Lorosae's charismatic leader Xanana Gusmao wants reconciliation amongst the Timor Lorosae community, including those still in the refugee camps in West Timor. Unfortunately, the international community still believes that the thousands still in the camps are militia even though militia groups were disbanded long ago.

As a result, he said, the registration process carried out by the Indonesian government, which saw 97 per cent of them choosing to remain in Indonesia, was regarded by several international NGOs as illegal. The NGOs believed that many of them were intimidated into the choice they made.

Kristio also felt that the trials set up by UNTAET [UN Transitional Administration in East Timor] were unfair when they tried those militia who returned. Several of them were encouraged to admit they had killed on their own initiative so their sentences were more severe.

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