Indonesia to cooperate with UN inquiry on East Timor

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian government said on Tuesday it would cooperate with a planned United Nations inquiry into reported atrocities in East Timor but warned that it would not necessarily be bound by its findings.

State Secretary/Justice Minister Muladi said Indonesia had to accept the decision made by UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on Monday to set up a panel to carry out the inquiry.

"As a member of the United Nations we have to allow the commission but its findings will have no binding value," Muladi told reporters.

But the government wants the UN panel to work closely alongside Indonesia's official human rights commission, Komnas HAM, he added.

"We hope the investigators who will come here are neutral and have good intention," he said.

Separately, Indonesia's Military (TNI), which was heavily implicated in the alleged egregious abuses of human rights and atrocities in East Timor, said it was still studying the UN plan.

"We are studying it and looking into it carefully. But we must look at everything from an objective and clear view," TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Sudrajat told reporters on Tuesday.

TNI itself, Sudrajat added, was working to establish whether the allegations that some of its troops had been behind militia violence in East Timor were true.

Separately, major human rights groups welcomed a UN investigation into atrocities in East Timor, but said it must be independent and backed up by forensic, legal and military experts.

They said a key challenge for the team would be to determine whether Indonesian forces orchestrated the terror wreaked on the population by pro-Jakarta militias, Reuters reported from Geneva.

Previous commissions of inquiry have led to the Security Council's establishing international tribunals to prosecute suspected war criminals in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said the UN inquiry must act independently of Indonesia and its institutions.

"The UN Secretary-General must now ensure that the commission is genuinely international, able to act independently of the Indonesian government and national institutions and is given the necessary resources and expertise," Amnesty said.

Joanna Weschler of Human Rights Watch said the UN inquiry must be "wholly independent". Its credibility could be undermined if it were closely tied to Komnas HAM, which the New York-based group says some Timorese view as having played a pro-Indonesian role in the months leading to the ballot.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen earlier Monday also urged Indonesia to conduct a swift investigation of the military's involvement in the terror campaign that ravaged East Timor this month.

"They should make an inquiry. They should do it as quickly as possible, as thoroughly as possible," Cohen told reporters traveling with him to Asia for talks on East Timor and the Australian-led effort to restore peace there.

Cohen said he would not prejudge the outcome but, "It's apparent that there were activities that were taking place in East Timor that are simply unacceptable."

The United States broke off military relations with Indonesia in early September in response to the violence in East Timor, which was triggered by an Aug. 30 referendum vote in favor of independence from Indonesia.

Militia to attack

Meanwhile, East Timor's pro-Jakarta militia said in Atambua, West Timor, on Tuesday they were giving a UN intervention force a three week deadline to stop "acts of violence" against their forces.

The deadline was announced by Eurico Guterres, the deputy commander of the umbrella Command of the Pro-Integration Struggle (PPI).

"I give a three-week ultimatum for Interfet forces to stop acts of violence and free PPI members that are held hostage. If within a three-week time limit Interfet forces do not change their attitude, my forces are going to take acts of revenge," Guterres was quoted by Reuters as saying at a news conference.

Interfet is the International Force for East Timor, which has detained many suspected militia members since it arrived in East Timor last week.

Guterres heads the feared Aitarak (Thorn) militia, which was blamed for much of the destruction in the capital Dili.

He was accompanied by PPI commander Joao da Silva Tavares. The two men called on Interfet commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove and the leader of Falintil resistance guerrillas Taur Matan Ruak, to stop attacking pro-integration forces.

They accused the two bodies of not treating PPI members humanely.

U.S. pressure

In a related development, the United States on Monday joined efforts to press Indonesia's foreign minister on the need to control pro-Jakarta militias in East Timor and western Timor, a senior U.S. official said.

That concern was expressed to Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas at a meeting of Asian foreign ministers hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"The government and armed forces of Indonesia should understand that what happens in West Timor and to East Timorese living elsewhere in Indonesia is as important to the United States policy as what happens in East Timor itself," Albright said afterward at a news conference.

The U.S.-Indonesia relationship "cannot return to what has been a normal basis until these various issues are resolved," Albright added.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that an Indonesian journalist working for a Tokyo-based documentary TV station, Asia Press International, was murdered in East Timor in the same weekend attack that killed nuns and priests.

Akihiro Nonaka, the president of Asia Press International, confirmed in Tokyo that he had received confirmation of the death of the journalist, Agus Mulyawan, from Falintil commander Falur Ratalaek in East Timor.

Falintil is the armed wing of the independence movement in East Timor.

"One hour ago we informed Agus' family in Denpasar (Bali)," Nonaka said, adding he was among nine church workers who were also killed on their way back from Losalos to Bacau.

Earlier on Sept. 21, Sander Thoenes, a Jakarta-based writer for the Financial Times of London, was killed near Dili two hours after he arrived and hired a motorcycle driver to bring him around that town. (prb/rms/vin)