INDONESIA/EAST TIMOUR: INDONESIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS COURT HAS FOUND EAST TIMOR MILITIA EURICO GUTERRES GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Record ID: 648219

  • Title: INDONESIA/EAST TIMOUR: INDONESIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS COURT HAS FOUND EAST TIMOR MILITIA EURICO GUTERRES GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
  • Date: 27th November 2002
  • Summary: (W4) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (NOVEMBER 27, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LAS EXTERIOR OF HUMAN RIGHT COURT 0.05 2. SLV JUDGES ENTERING COURT ROOM/TAKING SEATS 0.16 3. MCU JUDGE OPENING COURT SESSION 0.25 4. SLV DEFENDANT EURICO GUTERRES ENTERING COURT SESSION/SITTING 0.31 5. MCU MEDIA 0.36 6. LV OF COURT 0.42 7. MCU GUTERRES BEFORE COURT 0.48 8. SV SPECTATORS 0.54 9. CU OF TIMORESE SPECTATOR 1.00 10. LV OF COURT 1.04 11. CU OF GUTERRES 1.09 12. MCU DEFENDANT LAWYERS LISTENING 1.14 13. LV/SLV OF COURT (2 SHOTS) 1.24 14. MCU (Bahasa Indonesia) JUDGE HERMAN HELER HUTAPEA SAYING: "We hereby declare that the defendant Eurico Guterres has been proven legally guilty of the first and second charges of crime against humanity and is sentenced to ten years in jail" 1.47 15. LV COURT BEING DISMISSED 1.53 16. SV/CU (Bahasa Indonesia) DEFENDANT EURICO GUTERRES SAYING: "I believe that what I have done was for Indonesia. That what I have done" (2 SHOTS) 2.11 17. SV MEDIA 2.15 18. CU (Bahasa Indonesia) DEFENDANT EURICO GUTERRES SAYING: "I would not accept the judge's decision. Even for one day or one hour. Because what I did was for Indonesia" 2.23 19. SV OF INTERVIEW 2.29 (W4) LIQUISA, EAST TIMOR (FILE - MAY 8, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 20. SLV/LAS PRO-JAKARTA MILITIA SUPPORTERS MARCHING, CARRYING INDONESIAN FLAGS (2 SSHOTS) 2.42 21. MCU SUPPORTER STANDING AT RALLY WITH SPEAR 2.47 22. SV GUTERRES ADDRESSING RALLY 2.53 23. SLV SUPPORTERS CLAPPING 2.59 24. MCU GUTERRES SPEAKING AT RALLY 3.05 25. MCU/SV SUPPORTERS WITH SPEARS AND GUNS AT RALLY (2 SHOTS) 3.11 26. SV GUTERRES SURRENDERING GUN TO ARMY COMMANDER 3.21 27. SV SUPPORTERS/ MILITIA SUPPORTERS SURRENDER OF WEAPONS (2 SHOTS) 3.33 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 12th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA/ LIQUISA, EAST TIMOR
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAI6NPSNILM74LKP41G9GDAP9E
  • Story Text: Indonesia's human rights court has found former East
    Timor militia chief Eurico Guterres guilty of crimes against
    humanity during the territory's bloody 1999 independence vote,
    and sentenced him to 10 years in jail.



    Judge herman Hutapea read out the verdict to a packed
    courtroom on Wednesday (November 27).

    "We hereby declare the defendant Eurico Gutteres has been
    proven legally guilty of the first and second charges of gross
    rights violations and crimes against humanity," presiding
    judge Herman Heler Hutapea told the court.

    Prosecutors sought the minimum sentence of 10 years for
    Guterres. He faced a maximum penalty of death.

    But former militia chief Eurico Guterres, speaking to
    reporters after he was found guilty of gross rights violations
    and crimes against humanity during East Timor's 1999
    independence vote, said he did not accept the decision.

    "I will not accept the judge's decision even for one day
    or one hour because what I did was for Indonesia," the
    29-year-old Guterres said, surrounded by about a dozen
    supporters who had booed the verdict.

    Guterres arrived at court alone and wore a black suit and
    black and white spotted tie instead of his trademark
    camouflage uniform. He had a small Indonesian flag pinned to
    his lapel.

    A lawyer for the one-time leader of the much feared
    Aitarak militia said he would appeal and he branded the
    outcome unfair.

    Guterres faced a maximum penalty of death, but prosecutors
    had only pressed for the minimum penalty of 10 years in
    prison.

    He is the eighth of 18 suspects to be handed a verdict by
    the human rights court over the East Timor violence in which
    the United Nations estimates more than 1,000 people were
    killed.

    Most of the killings took place after East Timorese voted
    overwhelmingly in a U.N.-sponsored ballot on August 30, 1999,
    to break from 24 years of harsh rule by Indonesia.

    Indonesia's human rights court -- set up especially to
    hear cases involving East Timor violence after international
    pressure on the government to bring those responsible to
    justice -- delivered its first verdicts in August.

    The only other guilty verdict handed down so far was for a
    former East Timor governor who was sentenced to three years in
    jail, well short of the more than 10 years demanded by
    prosecutors.

    Human rights groups have criticised the results as a
    whitewash and the outcomes have drawn fire from the United
    States.

    Many rights experts have argued a key flaw of the court is
    its failure to try top military brass, including the overall
    commander at the time of the bloodshed, General Wiranto, and
    the head of military intelligence during the vote, Zacky Anwar
    Makarim. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

    On a recent trip to East Timor, then U.N. human rights
    chief Mary Robinson called for an international tribunal to
    bring those suspected of violence to justice if Indonesia did
    not do so.

    Guterres, who has been linked to President Megawati
    Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
    (PDI-P), has served a six-month prison term for inciting
    violence in Indonesian West Timor in September 2000.

    East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was declared fully
    independent on May 20 this year when the United Nations handed
    over power to a government led by former anti-Indonesian
    guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao.


    JRC/RZ

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