Received from Joyo Indonesian News

Prosecutors Summon Militia Leader For E Timor Rights Case

JAKARTA, May 8 (AP)--Notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres will be the next defendant to be tried by Indonesia for human rights violations in East Timor, an official said Wednesday.

The Indonesian government has convened a special tribunal to try suspects including a former regional military commander who allegedly directed the violence that swept East Timor before and after a U.N.-sponsored ballot in August 1999 in which voters chose independence from Indonesia.

International rights activists accuse Indonesia's army of setting up, funding and arming local pro-Jakarta militias that went on a killing spree that stopped only when international peacekeepers arrived.

Gutteres, the leader of Aitarak militia, has been added to a list of 18 suspects and will be formally charged at the tribunal in Jakarta on Monday, said Barman Zahir, a spokesman for the Attorney General's office. The Aitarak militia was based in based in Dili, the capital of East Timor.

Barman said that the dossiers of six other suspects - five army and police officers and one district chief - were submitted to prosecutors last week.

Seven suspects including Former East Timor Gov. Abilio Soares and former police chief Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen have gone on trial for crimes against humanity. If convicted, they face the death penalty.

The highest ranking military official to be brought before the tribunal has been Regional Military Commander Gen. Adam Damiri.

On Wednesday, Damiri echoed other Indonesian military suspects who said that the violence were touched off by electoral fraud committed by the U.N. officials who oversaw the ballot.

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