Govt to announce E. Timor mayhem suspects<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government on Wednesday will announce the
\nnames of suspects implicated in last year's violence in East
\nTimor in spite of a controversial constitutional amendment that
\nmany feel has virtually shielded past human rights abusers.<\/p>\n
Yushar Yahya, chief spokesman of the Attorney General's
\nOffice, confirmed on Tuesday the planned announcement but
\ndeclined to give further details.<\/p>\n
The announcement culminates months of protracted
\ninvestigations of the role played by top officers of the
\nIndonesian Military (TNI) in the East Timor mayhem.<\/p>\n
Among those questioned was the TNI commander in chief at the
\ntime, Gen. Wiranto, who has since seen both his military and
\npolitical careers plunge, resulting in his resignation from the
\nCabinet as coordinating minister for political affairs in
\nFebruary.<\/p>\n
Wednesday's announcement comes on the heels of controversy
\nover the constitutional amendment by the People's Consultative
\nAssembly (MPR) last week which guarantees the rights of people
\nfrom being prosecuted under new laws for past crimes.<\/p>\n
Human rights activists say that under the amendment, past
\nviolators of human rights would get off lightly because they
\ncould only be tried for ordinary murders under the criminal code
\nand not for crimes against humanity or war crimes.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives is still debating the
\nestablishment of a human rights court.<\/p>\n
Assurances given by legislators and top government officials
\nthat crimes against humanity would be exempted from the new
\narticle in the Constitution failed to convince activists that
\npast human rights abusers would not invoke their newly
\nestablished constitutional human right in court.<\/p>\n
More assurances came on Tuesday from Hari Sabarno, a senior
\nmember of the TNI\/Police Faction in the House, who denied that
\nthe \"non-retroactive\" principle was intended to protect past
\nhuman rights violators.<\/p>\n
\"Cases of human rights abuses could still be processed,\" Hari,
\na retired Army lieutenant general, told reporters.<\/p>\n
He suggested however that these cases be referred to a truth
\nand reconciliation commission which would be established at the
\nbehest of the MPR meeting last week.<\/p>\n
The commission would determine whether these cases should be
\nprosecuted in court, he said.<\/p>\n
\"It's not true that the (human rights) cases would be dropped
\nbecause of Article 28I (1),\" Hari said referring to the
\ncontroversial paragraph in the amended 1945 Constitution.<\/p>\n
Many past TNI officers have been put under investigation for
\nalleged human rights abuses in East Timor, Aceh, Irian Jaya and
\neven Jakarta. With the exception of a few officers who served in
\nAceh, most of these cases have not reached the court.<\/p>\n
Hari warned against generalizing these investigations and
\ngrouping them all as human rights abuses, saying that some of the
\ncases being looked into were genuine military operations against
\narmed rebel movements, like the one in Aceh.<\/p>\n
Joining the fray, Yan Juanda Saputra, a member of the team of
\nlawyers representing several top TNI officers in these
\ninvestigations, suggested that the country's criminal code would
\nbe sufficient to try past human rights abuses.<\/p>\n
On the East Timor investigation, Yan said the case against TNI
\nofficers should be dropped because the government had exceeded
\nthe six-month deadline given by the National Commission of Human
\nRights to send the case to the court.<\/p>\n
He invoked the government regulation in lieu of a statute
\n(Perpu) No.1\/1999 which set a time limit on how long cases could
\nbe processed by the government. (bby\/jun)<\/p>",
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