Row erupts over report on Timor Leste killings<\/p>\n
John Aglionby, Guardian News Service\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Timor Leste President, Xanana Gusmao, on Monday presented to
\nparliament the long-awaited report of the nation's Reception,
\nTruth and Reconciliation Commission but criticized many of the
\nkey recommendations and accused the commissioners of \"grandiose
\nidealism\".<\/p>\n
Gusmao recommended that the 2,500-page document not be made
\npublic, implying that it would not be in the national interest to
\ndo so.<\/p>\n
Commissioners and human rights activists reacted with dismay,
\naccusing the former hero of the resistance struggle against
\nIndonesia's 24-year oppressive rule of cowering before \"certain
\ninterests\", both domestic and international, rather than
\nprioritizing the people's desire for justice.<\/p>\n
Timor Leste was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and annexed the
\nfollowing year, a move never recognized by the United Nations.
\nSome 200,000 people were killed during the occupation before it
\nwon its independence in a UN-organized referendum in 1999.<\/p>\n
The commission, established in 2002, was tasked with looking
\nat all killings during the occupation, including the several
\nthousand committed by Timorese. One of its key recommendations
\nwas that Timor Leste should pursue justice for the victims by
\nprosecuting the alleged military atrocities.<\/p>\n
Gusmao told parliament - according to an official English
\ntranslation obtained by the Guardian - that rather than seeing
\nthe prosecution of Indonesian soldiers as the way to justice,
\n\"the best justice, the true justice, was the recognition by the
\ninternational community of the right to ... independence\".<\/p>\n
The commission conducted scores of town hall meetings and took
\nmore than 8,000 statements. Aniceto Guterres, the commission
\nchairman, told the Guardian that the majority of people they
\ntalked to wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice and
\nthe victims to receive compensation. \"That's what we found; that
\npeople want justice,\" he said. \"We knew people weren't going to
\nlike our findings and accept them but we didn't work to make
\ncertain people happy, we worked to reveal the truth about what
\nhappened.\"<\/p>\n
Gusmao said the commissioners had been almost irresponsible in
\ntheir recommendations. \"The grandiose idealism that they (the
\ncommissioners) possess is well manifested to the point that it
\ngoes beyond conventional political boundaries,\" he told
\nparliament. \"The report says the 'absence of justice... is a
\nfundamental obstacle in the process of building a democratic
\nsociety'. My reply to that would be not necessarily.\"<\/p>\n
Indonesia and Timor Leste have held tribunals into the
\nviolence which surrounded the 1999 referendum. All Indonesian
\nmilitary and police personnel prosecuted by Jakarta were either
\nacquitted or freed on appeal. No one has been extradited to stand
\ntrial in Timor Leste.<\/p>\n
Guterres said he was \"rather disappointed\" that the report
\nwill remain unpublished for the foreseeable future. Legislators
\nwill decide probably in the new year. Amado Hei, a program
\nofficer with the Human Rights Foundation in Timor Leste, said:
\n\"The victims hoped that something would happen with this report
\nbut it looks like it won't happen.\"<\/p>",
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