Subject: Age: Wiranto hits back on UN allegations [2 reports]
also: Wiranto lawyer says E. Timor prosecutors want to
sabotage presidential bid
The Age March 25, 2004
Wiranto hits back on UN allegations
By Matthew Moore Indonesia Correspondent Jakarta
Former Indonesian military chief and prominent presidential candidate General
Wiranto has challenged United Nations prosecutors in East Timor to come to
Indonesia and discuss their allegations that he is guilty of gross human rights
abuses.
Acting as General Wiranto's spokesman yesterday, former Indonesian justice
minister Professor Muladi said General Wiranto would meet the leaders of the
UN's Serious Crimes Unit if they agreed to visit Indonesia before the election,
which will take place on April 5.
Professor Muladi accused the UN prosecutors of "character
assassination" and released a document, approved by General Wiranto, which
argues that attempts by UN prosecutors to obtain a warrant for General Wiranto's
arrest are a breach of international law.
The UN this week released a summary of evidence against General Wiranto that
says that, as head of the armed forces of Indonesia in 1999, he was responsible
for the deaths of more than 1500 East Timorese killed mainly by militias armed,
trained and funded by the Indonesian military.
Professor Muladi challenged the UN's attempts to have General Wiranto
arrested on the grounds that Indonesia had established an ad hoc human rights
tribunal, which had heard allegations of human rights abuses against members of
the Indonesian military and convicted several of them.
"As long as the human rights court in Indonesia has demonstrated its
willingness and ability to bring to justice those responsible, the international
community should respect and honour the existing court in Indonesia unless the
UN has made an assessment it's a sham," Professor Muladi said.
While he conceded that Indonesia's tribunal had been severely criticised by
many countries and admitted it "may have weaknesses", he defended its
work as mainly "professional, independent and impartial".
-----------------------
Agence France Presse March 24, 2004
Wiranto lawyer says E. Timor prosecutors want to sabotage presidential bid
JAKARTA
A lawyer for former Indonesian military chief Wiranto accused East Timor
prosecutors on Wednesday of trying to sabotage the general's bid for the
Indonesian presidency by seeking his arrest.
The United Nations-funded prosecutors are urging an East Timor court to issue
an arrest warrant for Wiranto, saying he failed to curb militia atrocities in
the territory in 1999.
The lawyer, Muladi, said the allegations amount to "character
assassination."
"The issue has been deliberately blown up because his (Wiranto's)
position is getting stronger in the race for the presidency. Maybe there are
concerns abroad or at home," the lawyer said.
Wiranto is seeking the Golkar party's nomination for the presidential
election in July and has already started a high-profile campaign.
The Washington Post reported in January that the United States has put
Wiranto and others accused of war crimes in East Timor on a visa watch list that
could bar them from entering the country,
Muladi said the bid for an arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity
violates international law.
He told a press conference that Indonesian authorities, involving the
national human rights commission, had investigated Wiranto and decided not to
charge him over the abuses in East Timor.
Muladi, who was justice minister when the East Timor atrocities took place,
said Jakarta had set up a human rights court over the 1999 violence.
He alleged that during the trials there was no evidence that the violence had
been orchestrated by the military.
Muladi said that "based on the complementary principle of international
law," it was inadmissable to seek to try someone overseas if a case had
been investigated.
Pro-Jakarta militias, aided by Indonesian soldiers, waged a bloody campaign
against independence supporters before and after East Timorese voted in August
1999 to break away from Indonesian rule.
The UN says up to 1,500 civilians were killed and some 70 percent of the
country's buildings were destroyed.
Wiranto has said he did his best to prevent the violence. But East Timor
prosecutors cite "overwhelming" evidence that he failed to prevent
atrocities or to punish them.
"The evidence shows that (Indonesian) armed forces assisted in the
formation, funding, training and arming of the militias and that they often
assisted in the militia violence or stood by and let it happen," says a
prosecution brief.
Jakarta's rights court has been described by human rights groups as largely a
sham.
