East Timor suspects to be named within two days

JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General Marzuki Darusman admitted that President Abdurrahman Wahid had recommended naming some two- star generals as suspects in the East Timor human rights violation case.

When asked by journalists on Tuesday, whether Abdurrahman had only given a recommendation to name two-star generals as suspects, Marzuki replied: "Yes, let's just wait till tomorrow. But yes, there are some high-ranking officials on the list."

After attending a ministerial meeting on political, social and security affairs, Marzuki said that the investigation team will have completed the dossiers within the next day or two.

"The East Timor case is the responsibility of my office and my office alone. Within one or two days, the entire East Timor investigation will have been concluded by the team. We will see then," Marzuki said.

The Attorney General had promised to announce 30 names as suspects in the East Timor case this week. The case dossiers will then be submitted to the court for further legal action.

However, it is still unclear whether four-star Gen. (ret) Wiranto, the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief at the time when the violence erupted in East Timor, is among them.

Of 33 alleged suspects according to an earlier report by an inquiry team established by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), two are four-star generals, namely Wiranto and Gen. (ret) Feisal Tanjung, the former coordinating minister for political affairs and security.

The announcement of the suspects was originally scheduled for Aug. 23 but the Attorney General's Office postponed it in order to seek stronger legal grounds after a recent constitutional amendment which provides protection against retroactive charges.

"Just wait until tomorrow. We will all know about the results tomorrow," Marzuki added. (dja)