BY VANNESSA HEARMAN
On August 15 an Indonesian court convicted Abilio Soares, the former Jakarta-appointed governor of East Timor, of failing to rein in subordinates in September 1999 as pro-Jakarta militias rampaged, killing at least 1000 East Timorese. However, the court acquitted the Indonesian military and police commanders who were responsible for maintaining public security during the 1999 East Timor massacres.
The defendants were former Indonesian police commander for East Timor, Brigadier General Timbul Silaen; former district administrator, Colonel Herman Sedyono; former district military commander, Liliek Koeshadianto; former district police commander Gatot Subiyaktoro; former district military command chief-of-staff Captain Achmad Syamsudin and former territorial military commander, Lieutenant Sugito.
Amnesty International and the Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP), an international NGO based in Dili which monitored all the Indonesian trials, stated in their joint August 15 press release that it was time for the UN to reconsider its decision not to hold an international war crimes tribunal for East Timor. The UN had supported Jakarta's persistence in holding trials in Indonesia, and argued that those clamouring for an international tribunal, including many prominent East Timorese such as Bishop Belo, should wait for the outcome of the trials.
This position of the UN Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) under the leadership of Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello caused a great deal of disquiet among East Timorese and foreigners alike during his term as head of UNTAET from 2000 to 2002.
Despite a memorandum of understanding signed between Indonesia and East Timor in 2000 agreeing to cooperate on investigations of serious crimes committed in 1999 in East Timor, the Indonesian attorney general's office has not been very cooperative.<%0>
UNTAET was also reluctant to pressure Indonesia in the interest of fostering good relations between the two countries. Xanana Gusmao had commented over the course of 2001 that an international tribunal was not a priority for the East Timorese leadership. In the trial of Soares, Gusmao personally wrote a letter to the court arguing for leniency.
Silaen furnished letters to the court from East Timorese leaders such as member of parliament Leandro Isaac formerly of UDT and now reincarnated in the Social Democratic Party (PSD) vouching to Silean's "good character".
Criticisms were levelled at the Indonesian trials before they even began. JSMP and Amnesty contended that among some of the problems plaguing the trials were inadequate protection for the East Timorese witnesses, some of whom declined to attend due to security concerns.
Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, the judge originally appointed to lead the trials was assassinated and Tommy Suharto, son of the deposed President Suharto, was charged with masterminding the killing. Kartasasmita had presided over a case in which Tommy was the defendant.
A number of the judges appointed to preside over the trials were academics with little experience of trying serious crimes. In February, Amnesty International queried their qualifications.
Amnesty and other human rights organisations are not alone in their concern. The UN and the US government have expressed concern with the outcome of the trials. The United Nations Commission for Human Rights argued that the timeframe covered by the trials, April to September 1999, failed to cover the entire period in which human rights abuses were carried out by the Indonesian security forces and the militias.
The Bush administration, while expressing disappointment with the outcome of the trials, has not shown any indication of putting on hold its plans to resume military aid to Indonesia.
Under the terms of reference of the trials, agreed to by President Megawati Sukarnoputri in August 2001, the defendants would not be accused of direct personal involvement but of failing to take "appropriate measures" to control the behaviour of subordinates. The underlying assumption was that the conflict was intra-Timorese and there was no active involvement of the Indonesian military or civilian administration.
A number of reports, including that of the UN special committee led by Costa Rican judge Sonia Picado in December 1999, the Indonesian investigating committee KPP-HAM released in early 2000 and that by James Dunn commissioned by the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit of UNTAET in 2001, all pointed to active support and involvement by the Indonesian military in the training and arming of the East Timorese anti-independence militias.
The Indonesian newspaper Kompas quoting Suhardi Soemomoeljono, legal representative of prominent Aitarak militia leader Eurico Guterres, saying he thought the outcome of the trials would be highly unsettling for the militia leaders currently still in West Timor as it could be argued that they would be made scapegoats to appease the international community, while Indonesian military and police officers could get off scot-free.
Emboldened and very much guided by the terms of reference of the trials, the defence took an attacking position and during the trial in Jakarta, the UN was called upon to compensate Indonesians and Indonesian soldiers who lost their lives "defending human rights and the East Timorese people". The panel of judges agreed, going as far as arguing that the "good name" and "dignity" of the defendants had to be restored. There were no similar public calls for compensation for the East Timorese coming from the UN when it was in charge of administration in East Timor.
While there was much resentment among Indonesian military officials and their supporters over the formation of the ad hoc court, it served the purpose of taking the pressure off the UN Security Council from authorising an international tribunal for Indonesian war crimes in East Timor.
More significantly, the entire legal infrastructure involved in the ad hoc court's trials never questioned the Indonesian military's version of events. This bodes ill for any attempts to restrain the Indonesian military in Aceh and West Papua.
Indonesian human rights activist Munir, who chaired the KPP-HAM fact-finding team in 1999, considered that the acquittal of Silaen was "an extraordinary act in ignoring the community's desire to construct a more civilised society [and] a serious threat to the protection of human rights".
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 4, 2002.
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