| Subject: Indonesian
police chief in E.Timor during terror gets promoted Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday, November 3, 1999
I just followed rules, says head of police
By LINDSAY MURDOCH, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
The Indonesian police officer in charge of East Timor at
the height of this year's violence and destruction has been promoted to one of the
important investigative jobs in Jakarta.
Speaking after his appointment as director of the police
headquarters' anti-corruption force, Brigadier-General Timbul Silaen said he had upheld
the law in East Timor.
"It's up to the people to judge it right or
wrong."
While he was serving in East Timor, police under then
Colonel Silaen's charge are accused of backing anti-independence militia responsible for
killings, torture, rape and the destruction of 70 per cent of the buildings and
infrastructure in the territory.
Human rights groups have documented cases of police
changing into civilian clothes to join rampaging militia.
Only a handful of prosecutions were launched over thousands
of acts of intimidation and violence against independence supporters and foreigners,
including United Nations workers and journalists.
Human rights groups also have evidence of police
involvement in the massacre of up to 60 people at a church in the town of Liquica, 40
kilometres west of Dili, in April.
Members of a police riot squad fired teargas into a
priest's house where hundreds of people had taken refuge from militia attacks. When many
of them ran from the house to escape the gas, they were massacred in the church grounds.
Asked if he was worried he could be charged with crimes
against humanity after a UN investigation, General Silaen said: "I followed
regulations where we needed to implement a state of emergency in East Timor ... I was the
one on the ground who had to do the best for the country."
Under a UN agreement, Indonesia's police were responsible
for security in East Timor before and after a UN-supervised ballot in which 78.5 per cent
of Timorese voted to reject Indonesia's often brutal 24-year rule.
General Silaen warned it was now important to "take
into account the aspirations" of the 20 per cent of East Timorese who voted against
the territory gaining its independence.
"They think they have the right to be listened
to," he said.
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