INDONESIA: FORMER ARMED SERVICES CHIEF GENERAL WIRANTO IS QUESTIONED ABOUT HIS ROLE IN LAST YEAR'S MILITARY BACKED RIOTS IN EAST TIMOR
Record ID:
860743
INDONESIA: FORMER ARMED SERVICES CHIEF GENERAL WIRANTO IS QUESTIONED ABOUT HIS ROLE IN LAST YEAR'S MILITARY BACKED RIOTS IN EAST TIMOR
- Title: INDONESIA: FORMER ARMED SERVICES CHIEF GENERAL WIRANTO IS QUESTIONED ABOUT HIS ROLE IN LAST YEAR'S MILITARY BACKED RIOTS IN EAST TIMOR
- Date: 16th May 2000
- Summary: DILI, EAST TIMOR (FILE AUGUST 1999) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CLASHES BETWEEN PRO INDEPENDENCE AND PRO-INTEGRATION FACTIONS DURING REFERENDUM (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS, CAMERA MAN FILMING AS PROTESTORS SET FIRE TO MOTOR BIKE (2 SH0TS) VARIOUS , PROTESTORS SHOOTING AT EACH OTHER (3 SHOTS) SMV MAN TRYING TO PROTECT MAN FROM BEING STONED BY RIOTERS (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 31st May 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA/ DILI, EAST TIMOR
- City:
- Country: Indonesia
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5495IJE6NBMNR5CNBOFO71ACJ
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Former armed forces chief General Wiranto has been questioned for seven hours by Indonesian investigators over his role in the military-backed destruction last year of East Timor.
Indonesia earned international revulsion for the wave of violence which left East Timor in ruins after most of the population there voted to end decades of often brutal rule by Jakarta.
Wiranto, speaking to reporters after the questioning on Tuesday (May 16) and flanked by seven lawyers and two military legal advisers, defended his record in the territory, suggesting that the United Nations bore some of the blame.
"Riots broke out not because of the ballot which we succesfully guarded.But it was triggered by disappointment among the pro-Jakarta people over the results of the ballot which they thought had been run unfairly by the UNAMET," he said.
UNAMET was the United Nations body in charge of the August 30 independence vote.
Wiranto was Indonesia's military chief when the violence exploded last September after the results of the vote were announced.
Pro-Jakarta militia, with open support from Indonesian troops, went on a rampage of destruction in which hundreds died and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes.
Much of the impoverished territory's infrastructure was destoryed in the attacks.
Multinational troops were sent in to keep the peace and East Timor -- a former Portuguese colony which Indonesia invaded in 1975 -- was eventually placed under U.N.control.
Indonesia is under heavy international pressure to bring those responsible for the violence to court.It has said that trials of senior soldiers over the violence could begin in two months.
It is not clear whether Wiranto, earlier this year suspended from the cabinet after being linked by a government inquiry to the bloodshed, would be among those facing trial.
Wiranto said he would not return to his cabinet post and told reporters he felt relief that he was finally able to tell the truth to investigators.
He is due to be questioned again next week. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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