A festering wound
A festering wound
It surely surprises no one that criticism by the U.S. State
Department of the trial of those considered responsible for human
rights violations in East Timor in 1999 has been met with a lack
of sympathy in Jakarta.
To quote Indonesian Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril
Ihza Mahendra: "Speaking about disappointment, we too are disappointed
with the European court's verdicts on war criminals in Bosnia.
How many people died there, but they have been convicted to only
four and four-and-a-half years in prison. But that's where our
disappointment stops.
However, if the United States is disappointed, attempts are being
made to pressure the secretary-general of the UN, the UN Security
Council and members of Congress to ask the UN to form a
commission of experts to study (our) courts' decisions against
those accused of human rights violations in East Timor." Not
satisfied to leave it at that, Yusril added, "We are even more
disappointed with the U.S. over Iraq. But we cannot tell the U.S.
that. Let's just try to be fair."
Not surprising, perhaps, considering his position as the
country's top diplomat, a much milder opinion was expressed by
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda. The American view,
according to Hassan, was understandable and did not constitute a
case of foreign interference in the judicial system of Indonesia.
What apparently triggered the argument was a statement by U.S.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli, made early last
week, in which he expressed "distress and great disappointment"
at the recent verdicts pronounced by the ad hoc human rights
tribunal in Jakarta, which absolved four defendants in the 1999
East Timor human rights case of responsibility for the bloody
spate of killings, torture, arson and looting that swept the
territory in the wake of a referendum that sealed its future as
an independent nation.
As might be recalled, a veritable tidal wave of violence swept
East Timor at the time, reportedly leaving about 1,400 civilians
killed, an uncounted number of people tortured and at least
200,000 forced to leave their homeland. UN prosecutors stationed
in Dili, East Timor, have since issued an order for the arrest of
Gen. (ret) Wiranto. As commander-in-chief of the Indonesian
Military at the time of the traumatic East Timor events, Wiranto
is held responsible for failing to stop the killings,
deportations and torture, and for failing to punish those
directly responsible.
One prominent player in those shocking events, pro-Indonesia
militia leader Eurico Guterres, has since been sentenced to five
year in prison -- half the term demanded by the prosecution --
but many others were absolved of any responsibility in successive
trials that have taken place over the past years. According to UN
officials in Dili, of 18 defendants who have been tried in
Indonesian courts so far, only two have been punished, leading
them to conclude that legal processing in Indonesia, insofar as
East Timor human rights violations are concerned, is seriously
flawed and lacks credibility.
Obviously, such an unflattering appraisal may not go down well
in Jakarta. As Minister Yusril put it: "However much we disagree
with the courts' verdicts, they must be respected." However,
patriotism and legal formality aside, it must in all honesty be
admitted that is hard to see how so many people -- military and
police personnel as well as armed civilians -- can have escaped
justice in the wake of the unspeakable horror that swept East
Timor in 1999.
Good statesmen that they are, East Timor's leaders, from
President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Ramos Horta down,
have sought to distance themselves from the demands for a proper
trial of what UN officials see as war crimes, for the sake of
maintaining good ties with Indonesia and preserving stability in
their huge neighbor to the west.
That, however, is beside the point. As far as Indonesia is
concerned, criticism will be difficult to avoid, until its courts
shape up and justice is meted out fairly and impartially.