| Subject: Indonesian Presidential Visit to
Timor Ends, Demonstrators Moved
[Wire service photos of SBY's visit to East Timor can be found for the
next few days at http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?ei=ISO-8859-1&c=news_photos&p=timor]
Also: BBC - Indonesia and E Timor heal wounds
Indonesian Presidential Visit to Timor Ends, Demonstrators Moved By Tim
Johnston Jakarta 09 April 2005
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ended a
controversial two-day visit to East Timor by laying a wreath at a cemetery
where Indonesian troops killed hundreds of Timorese 14 years ago. The
visit went smoothly, but, some would-be demonstrators say they were
muzzled by police.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to East Timor, which ended Saturday,
appears to have been a success. The two countries signed a treaty defining
their disputed border, and relations seem warm and friendly.
But the visit was still controversial. Indonesia occupied East Timor
for almost 25 years. And then, when the Timorese voted for independence in
an UN-sponsored referendum six years ago, Jakarta-backed militias
unleashed a wave of violence - killing an estimated 1,500 people and
leaving the country in ruins.
Indonesia has failed to bring anyone to justice for the crimes
committed around the 1999 vote. The governments of both East Timor and
Indonesia have tried to downplay the problem, saying they want to look to
the future of the relationship rather than dwell on the past.
On Saturday morning, as a gesture of reconciliation, President
Yudhoyono visited the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, where, in 1991,
Indonesian troops opened fire on demonstrators gathered to honor a
pro-independence activist. More than 200 people were killed.
But some East Timorese were not impressed with efforts to forgive and
forget and turned out to protest at the cemetery, a site of huge symbolic
importance to the Timorese.
Tomas Freitas, one of the protesters, says his group wants to remind
President Yudhoyono of his responsibilities.
"The objective to have a banner there just to remind Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, we just want to remind him you have to resolve this
justice," he said. "You don't have to leave all the people who
committed these crimes. We just want him to resolve all of the problems in
terms of the justice."
Police moved off protesters, before President Yudhoyono arrived and the
demonstrators say their demands for justice are being silenced.
Indonesia did appoint a special tribunal, which tried 18 people for the
crimes, but all but one have been acquitted.
East Timor also held trials, but justice was diverted in that many of
suspects could not be extradited from Indonesia
So now, the United Nations has appointed a so-called Commission of
Experts to examine attempts to bring to justice those responsible for the
carnage. The three-person commission is currently visiting the Timorese
capital, Dili.
--
Indonesia and E Timor heal wounds Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has visited a cemetery in East Timor where Indonesian troops
killed hundreds of protesters in 1991.
The visit, the first by an Indonesian leader to the graveyard, is seen
as a symbol of reconciliation after East Timor's 1999 breakaway from
Indonesia. On Friday, he signed a border agreement which both sides
described as a good step towards normalising relations.
Some 1,500 people were killed when the tiny country voted for
independence.
The president prayed at the cemetery where a peaceful commemoration of
an activist killed by the Indonesian military turned into a bloodbath when
troops opened fire on 3,000 people.
More than 200 were killed and about 270 went missing.
Improving relations
Mr Yudhoyono later on Saturday visited a nearby graveyard where
hundreds of Indonesian troops killed during the occupation are buried.
"East Timor is like an old relative," he told the East
Timorese parliament.
"I hope that the atmosphere of this trip can be maintained and
translated into closer relations in the future."
The two countries have also signed an important agreement to formalise
the border between East Timor and Indonesian-controlled West Timor.
"Our two nations have been able to reach a provisional land border
agreement after less than five years of talks," East Timor's Prime
Minister Mari Alkatiri said.
"This is a great achievement in its own right and it bodes well
for making progress on other fundamentally important issues."
Trials
But while the visit marks a step forward in the relation between the
two countries, many in East Timor feel that justice has not yet been done.
Indonesia set up a special human rights court in 2000, but has so far
refused to extradite those accused of responsibility for the massacres.
Of 18 people it has tried in its own courts, 17 have been acquitted and
one is still free while his case is being appealed.
The BBC's Tim Johnston says that despite the visit, the wounds in East
Timor are far from healed.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, starting an
occupation which lasted almost a quarter of a century.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Published: 2005/04/09 05:49:17 GMT
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