Government pressed ahead with rights tribunal

JAKARTA (JP): An interministerial team set a two-day timeframe on Tuesday to complete a draft of a government regulation in lieu of a law which will constitute the establishment of a national tribunal to prosecute human rights abuses in East Timor.

Minister of Justice/State Secretary Muladi said after presiding over the team's initial meeting that the regulation, widely known as Perpu, would then be promptly enacted by President B.J. Habibie.

The team involves the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the State Secretariat.

"This (Perpu) is important because it is related to our national pride and sovereignty," said Muladi.

The team met with Habibie and his team at Merdeka Palace later in the day.

Indonesia decided to set up the national human rights tribunal in a bid to reject the presence of a United Nations inquiry to probe alleged human rights abuses in East Timor after the Aug. 30 self-determination ballot.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas reiterated on Tuesday that the government would not cooperate with the United Nations human rights commission in probing alleged atrocities in the former Portuguese colony. He said the government had assigned the National Commission on Human Rights to follow up on the allegations.

The minister also warned the international fact-finding inquiry it would be barred from entering East Timor without prior permission from Indonesia.

"We will not accept it, we cannot accept it, because there is already a national team headed by the National Commission on Human Rights," Alatas said on Tuesday evening after reporting to Habibie his recent visit to the UN annual general assembly in New York.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard however said the international team would go ahead with the inquiry with or without cooperation from Indonesia.

"The commission of inquiry will go ahead in any case," Eckhard said last week, as quoted by AFP. (prb)