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.