Extradition of Eurico opposed

Extradition of Eurico opposed

JAKARTA (JP): Speakers of the country's two legislative bodies
urged the government on Thursday not to allow the extradition of
former militia leader Eurico Guterres to East Timor.

Both House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and
People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais were of the
same opinion that sending Eurico back to his birth place would
damage the nation's sovereignty.

"If we surrender Eurico to UNTAET, we will humiliate
ourselves," Amien said, in reference to the United Nations
Transitional Administration in East Timor.

Amien and Akbar were responding to a request filed by UNTAET
for Eurico to be handed over for trial in the East Timor capital
of Dili, based on a memorandum of understanding signed by the
Indonesian government and UNTAET in April.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has rejected the request,
but instead has allowed UNTAET officials to question Eurico here.
The 27-year-old is being held at National Police Headquarters on
allegations of ordering his followers to repossess arms which had
already been surrendered to the security authorities. He has also
been implicated in alleged human rights abuses in East Timor last
year.

Amien said the nation should prevent Eurico's extradition
since he had chosen to remain an Indonesian citizen.

"If international players are unhappy with the way we handle
Eurico's case, then so be it as we don't have to satisfy them.
Let them live with their dissatisfaction," Amien, who is also a
professor in international relations, contended.

Akbar echoed Amien's statement, saying that as a sovereign
country, Indonesia should not be dictated to by UNTAET.

He also agreed that as an Indonesian national, Eurico should
be tried here.

"We are still deliberating the human rights tribunal bill
which later could be applied to alleged human rights cases. So I
think this is enough to show to the world our commitment in
dealing with this case," he remarked.

Marzuki reiterated on Thursday the possibility of UNTAET
investigators questioning Eurico here.

He said he had met with President Abdurrahman Wahid,
Coordinating Minister For Social, Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and National Police chief Gen. Surojo
Bimantoro to discuss the issue.

"The outcome of the meeting was that Eurico should stay in
Jakarta," Marzuki told reporters before a Cabinet meeting.

Refugees

In Denpasar, a routine meeting between the chief of the
Udayana Military Command Maj. Gen. Kiki Sjahnakri and commander
of the UNTAET Peace Keeping Force Lt. Gen. Boonsrang Niumpradith
failed to decide on the planned repatriation of more than 1,200
former civil servants and their families to East Timor.

Kiki said after the three-hour meeting that the repatriation
issue was dropped from the original agenda after representatives
of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) failed to show up.

Head of UNTAET Sergio de Mello did not permit the
representatives of the two international organizations to attend
the regular meeting, although they had expressed a wish to do so,
Kiki claimed.

He said the repatriation of the civil servants' families is
expected to mark the beginning of a successful exodus of East
Timorese refugees back to their homes.

The first batch of 64 families made up of some 500 people are
slated to head for Los Palos and Viqueque.

Some 130,000 East Timorese refugees, who fled their ravaged
homeland after the people of the territory opted for independence
last year, are living in camps across East Nusa Tenggara.
(jun/zen)