| Subject: IPS: Generals,
Lawyers Face Off on Timor Abuses
Generals, Lawyers Face Off on Timor
Abuses By Marianne Kearney
JAKARTA, Dec 17 (IPS) - An independent
Indonesian commission, which has made surprising headway investigating
human rights abuses committed during East Timor's post-ballot violence,
has come under fire from the high- ranking generals it has named as being
connected with the violence.
Still, the Indonesian team of lawyers has
vowed to press on with their investigation.
They have been receiving threats from a
senior military commander who says Indonesian soldiers would be so
humiliated they might run amok, if their generals were called to give
evidence in a public trial.
''If that happens, I pity the ordinary
people. The people who are wrong are the ones that are discrediting TNI
(the Indonesian acronym for its armed forces),'' said General Jaja
Suparman, who commands the elite Kostrad forces and a close friend of the
former armed forces head, Gen Wiranto.
Whilst the UN special investigation into
the human rights abuses has been hindered by the Indonesian government,
the Indonesian commission has received support from the new president,
Abdurrahman Wahid, and is considered more likely to proceed with a human
rights trial.
In a surprising twist, Wahid said that he
would ask for the resignation of General Wiranto, who headed the armed
forces during the violence in Timor after its Aug 30 vote for
independence, if he is found guilty by the court.
The commission has come under strong
criticism from the military over the last few days, because it has
indirectly accused senior Indonesian generals, including Wiranto, of
either supporting or directly organising the militias post-ballot rampage
which destroyed East Timor.
Wiranto has denied any links with the
violence, calling the commission members accusations ''groundless''.
This week Munir, an investigator with the
Indonesian team, announced that it had uncovered new evidence clearly
showing the links between the military, the government and the militias.
For instance, Munir said that every
provincial mayor was linked to the militias and that they had documents
which showed the militias asking for help from the military.
Munir rejected the military's criticism
of their investigation, arguing the case could set legal precedent and
could potentially ''reform the Indonesian law and restructure it so that
it can have an impact on human rights cases in Aceh, as well as other
cases''.
Meanwhile, the UN Commission
investigating human rights abuses has called for the continuation of the
investigation, saying it also has evidence proving the military's
involvement in the post ballot-violence which critics say included
systematic terror and targeting women for sexual abuse.
The UN team will make a recommendation to
the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, at the end of this week.
The UN team, which left Jakarta last
week, has not received the same support as its Indonesian counterpart from
the Indonesian government. Even Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab rejected the
inquiry, saying it would be shame Indonesia if its generals were hauled
before an international inquiry.
As a result the UN commission was refused
access to West Timor, where much of the evidence, such as the bodies of
pro-independence supporters, was reported to have been taken.
Many of the military-backed militia
leaders now live in West Timor and commission leader Sonia Picado says
they were disappointed that the Indonesian government was not more
cooperative.
Still, they were able to share evidence
with their Indonesian counterparts. The Indonesian team for example found
a mass grave in West Timor, where 26 people who were victims of a massacre
in the Catholic church at Suai had been buried.
They have been far more successful than
the UN team in interviewing members of the Indonesian military who were
ordered to participate in the violence, and high-ranking members of the
militia.
However, Picado said their team was still
able to gather a lot of evidence in East Timor. She says that Interfet,
the previous UN team in Timor, had been able to provide them with good
evidence illustrating the military's involvement with the militias.
Picado also said that new witnesses who
had seen various incidences or mass killings were coming forward everyday
in East Timor.
The UN team also had to battle
substantial red tape before it was finally sent to East Timor to begin its
investigation. It was almost two months after the UN officially approved a
war crimes investigation, before the team arrived in East Timor. By that
time, much of the evidence had either disappeared or eroded due to heavy
rains.
However, diplomatic commentators are not
confident members of the UN Security Council will approve a war crimes
tribunal, and therefore place more hope in the Indonesian team to deliver
justice.
Munir and commission leader Albert
Hasibuan say they are committed to trying the people ultimately
responsible for the systematic violence but admit that bringing their
orchestrators of the violence to the courts will be more difficult.
''This week I still thought the trial
would run fairly but I don't know what will happen next week after the
statements from the military,'' said Munir of the commission's position.
Another problem is witness intimidation.
Munir admitted that the military who are bringing key militia witnesses to
Jakarta in the next week, might try to intimidate the witnesses. ''Yes,
the military and the militias have consolidated,'' he said.
However, Hasibuan believes that if
Wiranto's knowledge of the violence could be proven, he could he tried for
failure to prevent the violence.
Yet even if the evidence is solid, the
outcome may still be a political decision and generals are summoned before
the trial and found guilty of orchestrating the post-ballot violence may
not be punished.
''It depends on the political position of
the government. Maybe the government will give amnesty to the generals
after the trial. But the important thing is that the trial is held, not
the results,'' Hasibuan said.
The other question is whether the team
has access to Australian intelligence material, which could provide more
vital hard evidence showing the extent of the Indonesian military's
involvement. (END/IPS/ap- hd-ip/mk/js/99)
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