| Subject: AFP: Double
blow for Timor rights efforts
Double blow for Timor rights efforts
JAKARTA, Dec 23 (AFP) - Efforts to bring
to justice those behind the violence in East Timor received a double blow
this week with the former armed forces chief rebuffing a domestic inquiry
and the government again rejecting an international tribunal.
General Wiranto, the former armed forces
chief, failed to appear on Wednesday before the Commission of
Investigation into Rights Abuses in East Timor, formed by the National
Commission on Human Rights.
Wiranto, now coordinating minister for
political security affairs, is one of six senior army officers summoned by
the commission investigating rights abuses during the orgy of violence by
troops and army-backed pro-Jakarta militias that followed East Timor's
August 30 vote for independence.
Adnan Buyung Nasution, chief lawyer for
the generals, said Wiranto was ready to appear before the commission but
at a later date. "My clients and I will always be ready to fulfill
(the) summons anytime," he said.
President Abdurrahman Wahid, meanwhile,
again ruled out cooperation with a UN-backed probe, saying Jakarta is
capable of investigating the violence which left hundreds dead, hundreds
of thousands homeless and the former Portuguese colony in ruins.
Wahid said Wednesday any trial of
Indonesian generals over the post-ballot violence in East Timor should be
done in Indonesia because "it is related to the sovereignty of the
nation."
A UN investigative team that visited East
Timor last month is due to hand over the results of its fact-finding
mission to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before December 31.
Annan, on the basis of the report, will
decide whether to recommend the creation of an international war crimes
tribunal for East Timor.
The document, according to diplomats
familiar with the dossier, is a stinging indictment of the Indonesian
armed forces and recommends that an international trial be held if the
authorities here fail to organize one of their own.
Several members of the domestic
commission have said publicly that they have come up with
"indications and proof" of the involvement of the army in
massacres and destruction in East Timor.
The statements have been met with a
furious reaction from the army with one general, Djaja Suparman, the
commander of strategic forces, saying his troops would react angrily if
their leaders were "humiliated."
The commission, which enjoys the support
of President Wahid and counts several leading Indonesian human rights
campaigners among its members, has nevertheless forged ahead with its
investigation.
In a recent editorial, The Jakarta Post
noted the difficulties facing the commission but said it must stand its
ground.
"Considering that all previous major
investigations involving power abuses in this country met the same fate,
these outcomes do not come as any suprise," the newspaper said.
"Given the international dimensions
of the inquiry into the violence in East Timor however, one wonders
whether the nation can afford to continue pussyfooting around on the
issue, without risking another international outcry."
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