Killing of Dutch journalist condemned
JAKARTA (JP): The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) condemned on Wednesday the killing of Jakarta-based writer for London's Financial Times Sander Thoenes in East Timor.
They also demanded that the United Nations, the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) and Indonesia provide greater protection for journalists reporting from the troubled territory.
"The international community must provide journalists with some basic security cover," Reuters quoted IFJ secretary-general Aidan White as saying in Brussels.
AJI secretary-general Dadang RHs urged Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Wiranto to investigate the killing of the Dutch journalist, and bring to court the people responsible for his tragic demise.
Financial Times editor Richard Lambert said in London that 30- year-old Thoenes was devoted to obtaining the truth, saying: "We are all devastated by this tragedy and extend our deepest sympathies to his partner and family."
Thoenes was killed less than two hours after he arrived in Dili and hired motorcycle driver Florindo Araujo to take him around Dili.
Araujo said he took Thoenes to Dili's Becora suburb, a militia stronghold. The two approached a roadblock manned by at least six armed men in Indonesian police uniforms.
Rather than stop, they turned around. And some of the alleged militias chased them with their cars. The men inside the car fired warning shots, Araujo added.
When the motorcycle did not stop, the men fired at the rear wheel, sending it crashing to the ground, Araujo said. He said it looked like the men were preparing to shoot again so he fled. He last saw Thoenes laying prone in the street.
The body was found on Wednesday with multiple wounds and an ear missing.
Multinational force commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove said suggestions that the Indonesian Military may have been involved in the murder, and attacks on another pair of journalists, would be investigated.
Wiranto pledged to investigate Thoenes' death. However, he reminded that the multinational force had gradually taken over TNI's role in East Timor.
Before arriving in Jakarta in 1997, Thoenes was based in Kazakhstan. In Indonesia, he also reported for U.S newspaper The Christian Science Monitor and Dutch publication Vrij Nederlands
Sabam Siagian, former chief editor of The Jakarta Post, who first met Thoenes in 1997, said he remembered Thoenes as being persistent in ferreting out items of information.
His grasp of the complex economic and financial problems that have hit Indonesia since the 1997 monetary crisis began was indeed impressive, said Sabam.
"I referred many times to Sander Thoenes when talking to young Indonesian reporters, how one should always be persistent but polite in their perennial hunt for information," said Sabam. (05/prb)