Bishop Belo vows never to appear at RI rights court
Bishop Belo vows never to appear at RI rights court
Agence France-Presse, Dili, East Timor
East Timor's outgoing bishop, Carlos Belo, hit back on Friday at
accusations he had made a fool of an Indonesian human rights
court hearing charges against Indonesian military officers,
saying he would never appear before it.
Belo vowed in a written statement to reporters that he would
only testify before a United Nations court, amid widespread
criticism that the legal proceedings in the Jakarta court were a
sham.
"I will only give evidence in front of an international court
carried out by the United Nations in East Timor," Belo, a Nobel
peace prize winner, said in a statement written in Portuguese.
The Jakarta court expected Belo to testify through a live
television link with East Timor this week.
His absence sparked an outburst from Binsar Gultom, a judge of
the human rights court, who accused Belo of "making a fool of the
court."
Quoted in Thursday's Kompas daily in Jakarta, Gultom said
Belo's testimony was badly needed to explain discrepancies
between statements in the official investigative report and
witness testimony.
"If he doesn't appreciate the court then he doesn't need to be
appreciated. It's useless for him to become bishop," Gultom was
quoted as saying.
A World Bank-funded satellite link was set up for three days
this week for witnesses in Dili to appear before the Jakarta
court but Belo said no one had bothered to ask him to testify.
"Not even one person has contacted me as an individual to give
testimony in the ad hoc court," Belo said.
"Not even one person told me how, where and when I am to give
testimony."
Belo said rather than his showing a lack of appreciation for
the court, the court itself has shown no appreciation for the
victims and people of East Timor.
Jakarta's rights court has been trying military and police
officers, as well as militia members and civilians, charged with
human rights abuses surrounding East Timor's 1999 vote for
independence from Indonesia.
However human rights workers have criticized the Jakarta
trials as a sham.
The most senior Indonesian officers were not charged in
connection with the violence and nine army or police officers and
one civilian tried before the court have so far been acquitted.
Two East Timorese civilians have been sentenced to prison but
they remain free pending appeal.
The international community has threatened to convene an
international court if Indonesia's efforts at justice are deemed
unsatisfactory. However many foreign observers now consider such
a tribunal unlikely.
United Nations officials and Indonesian human rights
investigators have said the pro-Indonesian militias were armed
and organized by the Indonesian security forces.
They carried out a brutal campaign of intimidation before East
Timor's August, 1999 vote to break away from Indonesia and a
revenge campaign of murder, arson, looting and forced deportation
afterwards.
An estimated 1,000 people died that year and much of the
territory was laid to waste.