East Timor seeks UN war crimes tribunal<\/p>\n
SYDNEY, Australia (Agencies): East Timor's foreign minister
\ncalled on Wednesday for a UN war crimes tribunal, saying
\nIndonesia had failed to prove it was willing to prosecute army
\nofficers for 1999 atrocities in the breakaway territory.<\/p>\n
Nobel peace prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta, foreign affairs
\nminister for the UN-run East Timorese administration, also
\nquestioned moves in Washington to ease a ban on military contacts
\nwhile Indonesia's army seemed reluctant to mend its ways.<\/p>\n
On a visit to Australia, Ramos-Horta told Reuters in an
\ninterview that 10 to 20-month sentences imposed by an Indonesian
\ncourt in May on six men found guilty of slaying three UN aid
\nworkers in West Timor were \"an outrage\" and an \"affront\".<\/p>\n
\"It makes a mockery of all of us,\" the veteran East Timorese
\nfreedom campaigner said.<\/p>\n
\"So it is time for all of us to drop the pretense that we can
\ntrust the Indonesian legal system, that we should give them time,
\nand the (UN) Security Council must do what it is supposed to do
\nand that is set up a war crimes tribunal.\"<\/p>\n
The aid workers -- an American, a Croat and an Ethiopian --
\nwere murdered in one of the bloodiest attacks on UN civilian
\npersonnel. They were stabbed and their bodies dragged into the
\nstreet and set ablaze.<\/p>\n
The UN transitional administrator in East Timor, Sergio Vieira
\nde Mello, has called for greater efforts to prosecute those
\nresponsible for atrocities in East Timor in 1999, when the former
\nPortuguese colony voted for independence from Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The vote, ending 24 years of often brutal rule from Jakarta,
\nsparked carnage as Indonesia-backed militia ran amok and over a
\nquarter of East Timor's 900,000 people fled into neighboring West
\nTimor.<\/p>\n
The UN estimates over 1,000 people were killed by militia.
\nEast Timor's first elections are slated for Aug. 30, with full
\nindependence expected in 2002.<\/p>\n
A special UN court for East Timor would be no simple matter.
\nThe United Nations has only created two war crimes tribunals, one
\nfor Rwanda and one for former Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n
But Ramos-Horta said his people had run out of patience.
\n\"We are thoroughly, thoroughly disappointed. We feel cheated,
\nbetrayed by the Indonesian side,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta questioned the \"wisdom and timing\" of apparent
\nmoves within the U.S. government to relax a ban on military
\ncooperation imposed after the East Timor bloodshed.<\/p>\n
He said military elements appeared to have instigated some of
\nthe recent violence in Indonesia's restless provinces.<\/p>\n
Soured relations<\/p>\n
While he sympathized with the view in some Western capitals
\nthat maintaining Indonesia's territorial integrity was crucial to
\nensuring stability, \"how best to pursue that is where we differ\".<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta was due to give a speech in Sydney on Wednesday
\nnight, in which he planned to express East Timor's growing
\nfrustration at efforts to normalize relations with Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Bearing the scars of 25 years of occupation, we have walked
\nhalf way to meet our tormentors carrying an olive branch,\" he
\nsays, according to excerpts.<\/p>\n
\"Yet we have been met by some with hatred as if we are the
\nones who had invaded, occupied, looted and raped.\"<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta said that fraying relations were not the fault of
\nembattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who faces
\npossible impeachment, but of hard-line elements in the military.<\/p>\n
If Wahid is impeached, or stands down over his chaotic 19-
\nmonth rule, popular Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri is the
\nmost likely to succeed him. She is seen as close to the military
\nand likely to take a tough stance on separatism.<\/p>\n
\"The closeness of Megawati and the military raises concerns
\nfor us,\" Ramos-Horta said. \"I hope they don't undermine some of
\nthe positive steps that have been taken by the two sides to put
\nthe past where it belongs.\"<\/p>\n
Megawati had also refused meetings with the East Timorese
\nleadership and with the United Nations, which is administering
\nthe former Portuguese colony during its transition to
\nindependence.<\/p>\n
Indonesia was irresponsible in continuing to allow the
\nmilitary-backed militia groups from East Timor to train in the
\nIndonesian province of West Timor and that was unlikely to change
\nunder Megawati, Ramos Horta said.<\/p>\n
\"If anything, it will get worse,\" Ramos Horta said. \"She is
\nultra-nationalistic, she has shown no sympathy whatsoever with
\nEast Timor, she has refused dialogue with the UN and with East
\nTimorese president Xanana Gusmao.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/east-timor-seeks-un-war-crimes-tribunal-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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