'Eurico did not order attack'

JAKARTA (JP): Two former East Nusa Tenggara Police officers testified in favor of defendant Eurico Guterres at the North Jakarta District Court on Thursday, saying they had never seen him order his men to attack a police station in Belu to reclaim their weapons.

The officers said they had been with the defendant a few minutes before the attack, which marred a ceremony marking the surrender of weapons by former members of the pro-Jakarta East Timorese militia to the provincial police last September.

Former East Nusa Tenggara Police chief Brig. Gen. John Lalo, who now serves a criminology expert at National Police headquarters, told the court he had been ordered to keep Eurico away from the ceremony, which was attended by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Lalo said that he, together with Maj. Gen. A. Sutiyono, the operations assistant to the National Police chief, were having a chat with Eurico in the office of the provincial police's intelligence unit while the ceremony was taking place.

"I left the room to accompany Sutiyono to his car which was parked behind the office and then I walked up front to where the ceremony was taking place, which was just a few minutes away.

"I didn't hear any orders or shouts or yells. But when I was almost there, I saw the militiamen were taking back the weapons that were on the table and were running away with them," he told the hearing presided over by Judge Suwardi. (bby)