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)