No Wiranto hearing, E. Timor justice says
No Wiranto hearing, E. Timor justice says
Agence France-Presse, Dili
A judge in East Timor has refused a request for a public hearing
into alleged war crimes by a former Indonesian general who is now
seeking his country's presidency.
United Nations-funded prosecutors had asked Judge Phillip
Rapoza to hear their application for an arrest warrant for Gen.
Wiranto, Indonesia's military chief during East Timor's bloody
breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.
But Rapoza, in a ruling delivered on Wednesday and made public
on Thursday, said the proposed hearing was not provided for under
local and international law and would be "a trial in all but
name."
Prosecutors indicted Wiranto for crimes against humanity
almost one year ago, along with six other senior Indonesian
officers and the territory's then-governor.
Only one arrest warrant has so far been granted and last month
top prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro accused judges of foot-
dragging.
An estimated 1,000 people died in a savage intimidation
campaign waged by Indonesian military-backed local militias when
East Timorese voted for independence in August 1999.
The East Timor court, known as the Special Panel for Serious
Crimes, is the only tribunal of its kind.
Indonesia set up its own special court but rights groups
described it as largely a sham. Jakarta refuses to hand over
anyone who has been indicted in East Timor.
Prosecutor Monteiro's deputy Nicholas Koumjian, like Rapoza a
U.S. citizen, asked the judge on Jan. 28 for a public hearing on
the arrest warrant.
Koumjian said it was the most transparent way to deal with an
issue of worldwide interest and could be the only chance for
victims to explain how they suffered.
Wiranto, who is planning to run in Indonesia's first direct
presidential elections in July, could send a lawyer or testify by
video-link if he feared being arrested, he said.
Prosecutors accuse the general of failing to punish or prevent
crimes committed by those under his control. He says he did his
best to prevent bloodshed.
However Rapoza said establishing a criminal procedure for
Wiranto alone "violates basic principles of the rule of law."