AGO seen as 'stumbling block' to Timor truth

AGO seen as 'stumbling block' to Timor truth

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) told a
visiting team of United Nations experts on Friday the Attorney
General's Office (AGO) was a stumbling block to the prosecution
of military soldiers and police officers indicted over the 1999
violence in East Timor.

Following a closed-door meeting with the UN Commission of
Experts at her office in Jakarta, Komnas HAM deputy chairwoman
Zoemroetin K. Soesilo said the national rights body had
recommended that 123 witnesses be summoned to testify against
indicted security personnel, but many of these witnesses were
never presented to the court by prosecutors.

"They asked us why some of the people believed to be
responsible for the violence in the wake of East Timor's break
(from Indonesia) were not processed by prosecutors," Zoemroetin
said of the meeting with the UN commission.

She said Komnas HAM had no authority to intervene in the
prosecution of suspected rights abusers in East Timor, which was
the sole domain of the Attorney General's Office.

The rights commission, she said, was only authorized to
investigate the East Timor carnage and suggest suspects for
prosecution.

Asked about the difficulty of punishing suspects from the
military and police, Zoemroetin said the political tug-of-war
between different parties appeared to be too strong to allow
justice to run its course.

The UN team is visiting Jakarta to examine the government's
failure to jail military soldiers and police officers in charge
of security in East Timor when pro-Indonesia militias rampaged
through the territory in 1999.

The team ended its three-day inquiry in Jakarta later on
Friday after holding separate talks with House of Representatives
leaders and Indonesian Military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto.

On Thursday, the experts met separately with President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda,
Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan and Attorney General
Abdul Rahman Saleh.

"At this point, we have nothing to say because we have not
finished our work in Indonesia. We'll be leaving tomorrow
(Saturday) and we will be considering our report before
presenting it to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan," Shaista
Shameem of Fiji, who heads the UN commission, told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.

The experts visited East Timor before arriving in Jakarta.

When asked for his opinion on gross human rights abuses in
East Timor during the independence vote, commission member Yozo
Yokota of Japan said, "That is something that we will put in our
report, which will be coming out soon."

Zoemroetin said the UN experts also asked her about Komnas
HAM's activities in East Timor during its investigation into the
atrocities.

During the meeting, she was accompanied by two other Komnas
HAM members -- Koesparmono Irsan and Enny Suprapto.

Zoemroetin said her office would translate the findings of its
investigation into English and provide the documents to the UN
commission.

"As far as we are concerned, the case has been brought to
court and if this information needs to be retrieved for this
purpose, we are willing to do so," she said.

Zoemroetin said the UN Commission of Experts asked about the
composition of the Komnas HAM team that looked into the East
Timor rights violations, their activities and whether they
interviewed witnesses.

The UN team also inquired about the difficulties Indonesian
prosecutors appeared to encounter in finding witnesses to
testify, she said.

"For one thing, to gather the information we needed, we not
only visited East Timor but the Indonesian border area (in East
Nusa Tenggara) as well. But it proved difficult to gain the trust
of the people. The whole process was not easy," Zoemroetin said.
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