INDONESIA: EAST TIMOR LEADER XANANA GUSMAO CRITICISES HUMAN RIGHTS INDICTMENTS AGAINST INDONESIA.

Record ID: 646741

  • Title: INDONESIA: EAST TIMOR LEADER XANANA GUSMAO CRITICISES HUMAN RIGHTS INDICTMENTS AGAINST INDONESIA.
  • Date: 1st March 2003
  • Summary: (W3) DENPASAR, INDONESIA (FEBRUARY 28, 2003) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE 0.04 2. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa) EAST TIMOR PRESIDENT XANANA GUSMAO SAYING: "Although I respect the decision made, I do not accept and approve the methods adopted in this process." 0.22 3. GV: JOURNALISTS 0.30 4. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa) XANANA GUSMAO SAYING: "I still believe that the core of this process is for us to keep a good relationship with Indonesia, and more dialogue is necessary, especially for sensitive matters such as this one." 0.56 5. MV/GV: GUSMAO TALKING TO JOURNALISTS; GUSMAO WALKING OUT OF PRESS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 1.11 6. MV/GV: GUSMAO SHAKING HANDS WITH BALI OFFICIAL AND GETTING INTO CAR; CAR LEAVING (2 SHOTS) 1.34 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DENPASAR AND JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA7G6NFHJKAGT0PWNFTWTMVQATA
  • Story Text: East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, who spent years
    fighting a guerrilla war against Jakarta, has criticised
    indictments issued against eight further suspects for human
    rights violations in East Timor, including former Indonesian
    military chief General Wiranto.



    President Xanana Gusmao said he did not agree with the
    "methods adopted" in the legal process when East Timor
    prosecutors charged more than 50 people, including a former
    police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity
    on Friday (February 28) over violence surrounding a 1999 vote
    for independence from Indonesia.

    "Although I respect the decision made, I do not accept and
    approve the methods adopted in this process," Gusmao said in a
    statement, adding he regretted the indictments were not
    postponed until he had returned to East Timor from a summit in
    Malaysia.

    Gusmao regards reconciliation with Jakarta as a top
    priority.

    Among the latest group accused, according to a statement
    from the serious crimes unit in East Timor, were the former
    Indonesian chief of police for East Timor, Timbul Silaen, and
    a prominent one-time leader of pro-Jakarta militias there,
    Eurico Guterres.

    They were charged "with counts of crimes against humanity
    including murder, enforced disappearance, inhumane acts and
    deportation". Most of the others charged in the latest
    indictments were members of pro-Jakarta militias.

    Indonesia has so far ruled out sending any of its former
    officials to East Timor to stand trial.

    When the Friday indictments are combined with those filed
    earlier in the week and previously, the serious crimes unit
    has now filed 58 indictments charging a total of 225 people
    for crimes ranging from rape and torture to murder.

    Indonesian human rights courts have so far delivered
    verdicts in the cases of 15 out of 18 suspects charged over
    East Timor human rights violations, and have handed down
    convictions in four of the trials.

    In the latest development in Indonesia, a court on Friday
    postponed for two weeks the expected verdict on
    Brigadier-General Noer Moeis, who commanded Indonesian troops
    in East Timor at the time of the August 30, 1999 ballot in
    which its citizens voted overwhelmingly to end Jakarta's
    24-year rule.

    The small number of convictions in Indonesia, the
    relatively light sentences for those found guilty and
    Jakarta's failure to charge Wiranto have all triggered
    criticism from rights groups that Indonesia is being soft over
    the 1999 bloodshed in which the United Nations estimates more
    than 1,000 people were killed.

    Most of the deaths were blamed on pro-Jakarta militias
    acting with military backing. Many of those in the militias,
    including most of those named in Friday's indictments, fled to
    Indonesia after U.N. peacekeeping forces entered East Timor in
    late 1999.

    The serious crimes unit said that was where most of those
    indicted on Friday were believed to be.

    Critics say Wiranto as top commander was ultimately
    responsible for what happened in East Timor. He has said he
    was not only innocent, but acted as a peacemaker.

    Indonesian officials have shown no inclination to send
    Wiranto or anyone else to East Timor for trials, and under
    East Timorese law those charged cannot be tried in absentia.

    Indonesia argues its human rights courts should handle the
    cases of Indonesian nationals.

    In his comments, Gusmao praised his giant neighbour's
    government under Megawati and her predecessor Abdurrahman
    Wahid "as a good model for all of us".

    "I still believe the core of this process is for us to
    keep a good relationship with Indonesia, and more dialogue is
    necessary, especially for sensitive matters such as this one,"
    he said.

    Gusmao said he saw the legal process as it was being
    handled as not in East Timor's national interest, and
    suggested the international community should be more involved
    in determining how human rights cases were pursued and
    prosecuted.




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