| Subject: Nobel
Laureates Want Indon Generals To Face Tribunal
Associated Press December 10, 1999
Nobel Laureates Want Indonesian Generals
To Face Tribunal
DILI, East Timor (AP)--East Timor's joint
Nobel Peace Prize laureates Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and Jose
Ramos-Horta marked the third anniversary of their win by demanding a war
crimes tribunal try top Indonesian army generals accused over the
devastation of their homeland.
They both criticized Indonesia's new
reformist government for saying it would not hand over any generals if a
tribunal is set up.
The Indonesian military is widely accused
of human rights abuses during 24 years of occupation of East Timor.
Many also allege that it sponsored and
helped pro-Indonesian militiamen launch a campaign of terror and
destruction that followed a landslide vote for independence in a
U.N.-organized referendum on Aug. 30.
Ramos-Horta and Belo named the former
head of army Gen. Wiranto as being ultimately responsible for the
bloodshed and destruction in East Timor.
They also blamed other generals.
"You cannot - in this day and age at
the end of the 20th century - plan and order the destruction of a whole
country, the abduction of thousands of people, the killing, the rape, and
get away with impunity," Ramos-Horta said of Wiranto.
"It would be an affront to humanity
if Wiranto and the others retire peacefully as if nothing had happened.
"If Indonesia itself wishes to be
considered a democracy, to gain international respect, they must bring to
trial those Indonesians responsible for abuses in East Timor."
Recently, members of a U.N. Commission of
Inquiry on East Timor and the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission
visited East Timor and interviewed witnesses to the violence, but neither
organization has directly called for a tribunal to be established.
Belo said their investigations would be
wasted if they didn't do so.
Belo and Ramos-Horta were presented the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, which centered the international spotlight on
the plight of the East Timorese under Indonesian rule.
Ramos-Horta said the awarding of the
prize was a turning point in East Timor's long struggle for independence
as it generated international pressure.
This in turn, he said, was the
determining factor in a decision by President B.J. Habibie to shift in
Indonesia's policy and allow the holding of a U.N.-sponsored ballot.
"So if it were not for the Nobel
peace prize, which put Timor on the agenda all over the world, we wouldn't
be here today. I am a 100% certain of that," Ramos-Horta said.
Meanwhile in Jakarta, Mulya Lubis, a
member of Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights said the body
would start questioning senior Indonesian generals in 10 days time.
He also said that the government had
agreed to fly several militia leaders for questioning in Jakarta from
Indonesian-held West Timor.
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