Yosfiah named suspect in murder of journalists<\/p>\n
DILI, East Timor (AP): UN prosecutors said Saturday they were
\nconsidering issuing arrest warrants for three men - including a
\nformer Indonesian government minister - over the slaying of five
\nforeign journalists in East Timor more than 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor-General Mohamed Othman said the world body would
\ndecide within two weeks whether to act against the suspects.<\/p>\n
\"If the killings are classified as war crimes, the UN
\nadministration can request the arrest and surrender of suspects
\nunder universal jurisdiction,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald,
\ninvestigators have already asked Othman to organize the arrest of
\nMohammad Yunus Yosfiah - a former information minister - another
\nIndonesian, Christoforus da Silva, and an East Timorese, Domingos
\nBere.<\/p>\n
However, officials in East Timor's capital Dili said arrest
\nwarrants have not yet been issued.<\/p>\n
At the time of the killings, Yosfiah was an Indonesian army
\ncaptain commanding an elite unit called Team Susi. The unit was
\ninvolved in a covert operation to prepare for a full-scale
\ninvasion of what was then Portuguese Timor. Da Silva and Bere
\nwere members of the unit.<\/p>\n
Reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28, and cameraman Brian Peters, 29,
\nboth British; reporter Greg Shackleton, 27, and soundman Tony
\nStewart, 21, both Australian; and New Zealand cameraman Gary
\nCunningham, 27, were killed in the border town of Balibo as the
\ninvaders attacked on Oct. 16, 1975.<\/p>\n
At the time, the government in Jakarta claimed the journalists
\nwere caught in a firefight between Indonesian troops and East
\nTimorese defenders. But witnesses testified that the journalists
\nwere gunned down after surrendering.<\/p>\n
Yosfiah has vehemently denied any role in the murders. In 1998
\nand 1999, he served as information minister in the administration
\nof President B.J. Habibie, who took over after the ouster of
\nlongtime dictator Soeharto.<\/p>\n
UN police have recently completed a seven-month investigation
\ninto the Balibo killings. Several new witnesses who returned to
\nEast Timor following Indonesia's withdrawal in 1999 have also
\nbeen questioned.<\/p>\n
Othman said the accused could only be tried for war crimes,
\nand not for murder.<\/p>\n
\"Under the statute of limitations, after 15 years in Portugal
\nand 18 years in Indonesia, you can not prosecute for murder,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Indonesian troops executed another foreign journalist, Roger
\nEast, during amphibious landings in Dili on Dec. 7, 1975. The
\nAustralian reporter was dragged out of his hotel room and shot in
\nthe back of the head on a nearby wharf.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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