| Subject: JP: SBY Told to Summon AG Over
Acquittal
The Jakarta Post Thursday, March 10, 2005
SBY told to summon AG over general's E. Timor acquittal
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been urged to summon Attorney
General Abdul Rahman Saleh over an Army general's acquittal of human
rights violations in the 1999 East Timor carnage.
The Supreme Court recently upheld the acquittal by the human rights
tribunal of Brig. Gen. Tono Suratman, who was the chief of the now defunct
Wiradharma military command in Dili, East Timor, when military-backed
militias ravaged the former Indonesian province during a 1999 independence
vote.
On Monday, a panel of justices upheld Tono's acquittal of all charges
after a team of prosecutors led by Gabrial Simangunsong failed to submit
legal arguments to the Supreme Court to persuade it to convict the
one-star general.
The prosecution team had sought 10 years in jail for Tono, but in May
2003 the ad hoc human rights tribunal acquitted the defendant of all
charges.
Gabrial appealed to the Supreme Court but failed to submit any legal
arguments before the elapse of the two-year deadline.
Usman Hamid from the National Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence (Kontras) said on Wednesday that the Attorney
General's Office (AGO) must explain why such "negligence" had
happened.
President Susilo should summon Rahman to find out whether the
"negligence" had in fact been deliberate in order to ensure
Tono's freedom, Usman added.
Sharing Usman's view was human rights lawyer Mugiyanto. He accused the
government of lying to the public and the international community by
failing to provide justice to the victims of the East Timor carnage and by
not jailing those figures responsible for the violence.
Monday's ruling on Tono means that 17 defendants in the East Timor
trials have walked free. Former militia chief Eurico Gutteres, who
received 10 years in jail, is the only defendant left appealing against
his conviction to the Supreme Court.
Tono freedom was secured only a month after the United Nations unveiled
a plan to conduct its own inquiry into the 1999 rampage, in which
Indonesian-backed gangs are accused of killing about 1,000 East Timorese.
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