East Timor: Justice for whom?

East Timor: Justice for whom?

Adirito de Jesus Soares, Dili

Many people have commented about the first 100 days of
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidency. One of his
campaign promises, as we know, was to deal specifically with
corruption -- one of most acute problems facing Indonesia.

On the one hand, this promise shows the seriousness of SBY's
government, at least in public, in establishing good governance
and democracy. However, he has ignored the issue of human rights
violations committed by state apparatus over the last several
decades

This includes crimes against humanity that took place in East
Timor during the illegal occupation by the Indonesian regime.
People might recall some of the other big atrocities, such as the
killing of alleged Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members in
1965 and more recent cases like the May 1998 riots were thousands
of people were killed. We can add to this list cases like human
rights violations in Aceh, Papua and Maluku.

In relation to human rights violations in East Timor, East
Timorese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ramos Horta
and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda met with UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and then U.S. secretary of state
Colin Powell in Washington in December last year. In these
meetings, the two foreign ministers proposed what they called the
International Truth and Friendship Commission to deal with crimes
against humanity that took place in East Timor during and after
the 1999 referendum there.

It is not yet clear what the mandate of this commission would
be. However, as explained by Horta, it seems that the commission
would have the task of naming those who committed human rights
violations in East Timor. Horta, the main proponent of this
commission, has been campaigning for this proposal while ignoring
the voices of the victims in East Timor.

Of course this proposal has attained significant support from
the Indonesian government, since it would avoid the demands of
victims both in Indonesia and East Timor who are still pursuing
justice by demanding the establishment of an international
tribunal to try the alleged perpetrators.

In other word, this commission would pave the way for the
perpetrators to keep enjoying their impunity. In contrast, in the
eyes of the victims, an international tribunal would put an end
to the impunity enjoyed by those who committed human rights
violations both in East Timor and Indonesia.

Horta and Wirayuda's proposal seems especially odd as Kofi
Annan is preparing to establish a Commission of Experts in order
to carry out an assessment of the ad hoc Human Rights Court in
Jakarta and the Special Panel Court in Dili. These two tribunals
have a mandate to try those who committed crimes against humanity
in East Timor prior to and after the referendum in 1999.

It has been more than obvious that these two tribunals have
not offered any real justice to the victims of 1999. The ad hoc
Human Rights Court in Jakarta is merely a show, with the main
alleged perpetrators being acquitted, while the Special Panel
Court in Dili has no teeth to bring to court those big fish who
are still residing in Indonesia.

So what exactly is the hidden agenda behind this odd proposal?
It appears that the underlying aim of the commission is to put
bilateral relations between East Timor and Indonesia ahead of
justice for the victims or rights abuses. It is obvious that
pragmatic politics always puts aside justice for victims in the
name of leaders who claim to represent them.

The international community, through the UN, has a noble
mission of dealing with perpetrators of gross human rights
violations as hostis humani generis -- enemies of mankind.

Consistently, the UN has to push for the idea of establishing
a Commission of Experts in order to carry out an assessment. If
this assessment takes place, then the UN has to work out how to
find an alternative, which could be an international tribunal if
the assessment shows that there is no hope for justice via the
present mechanisms. This is consistent with all of the UN's
earlier findings and recommendations after the 1999 East Timor
referendum.

It is likely, however, that Horta and Wirayuda's proposal will
bypass and undermine Kofi Annan's idea of establishing a
Commission of Experts. Worse still, this proposal shows where the
leaders' real interests lie, and for sure it is not justice for
the victims.

The author, a lawyer and human rights advocate, is a former
member of East Timor's Constituent Assembly and currently teaches
at Dili University. He can be contacted at sahe_lib@yahoo.com