Prosecutors appeal verdicts on rights abuse

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court over a court verdict acquitting six military and police officers accused of committing crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999 just days after the United States expressed deep disappointment over the ruling.

"We signed the appeal letter seven days after the verdicts (Wednesday). We have 14 days to complete all materials needed for the appeal," Attorney General's Office spokesman Barman Zahir told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

According to Barman, prosecutors must now prove to the Supreme Court that the human rights judges failed to uphold the law by acquitting the six rights defendants.

Last week, the Human Rights Court declared former East Timor Police chief Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen and five other military and police officers not guilty of charges that they had failed to prevent or stop their subordinates from carrying out widespread, systematic violence in East Timor in 1999.

The same court sentenced former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares to three years in jail on the same charge, far below the 10-and-a-half years demanded by prosecutors.

Such verdicts drew strong criticism not only at home but also abroad, and calls for the establishment of an international tribunal are mounting.

Overseas, the UN immediately expressed concern over the trial process.

Earlier this week, the U.S. finally broke its silence by expressing its disappointment over Indonesian prosecutors' handling of human rights cases, which ended in acquittals.

The U.S. government has specifically blamed prosecutors for not fully using the resources and evidence available to them from the UN and elsewhere in documenting the atrocities in East Timor.

The U.S. had planned to provide a US$50 million loan for the Indonesian Military but required as a reform greater accountability from the military.

Analysts believed the verdicts in the human rights trial would influence the U.S. in its decision as to whether or not to disburse its loan to the Indonesian Military.

At home, experts and human rights activists have repeatedly stated that the court verdicts did not produce a just result for the victims of violence in East Timor.

Activists also criticized prosecutors for describing the violence in East Timor as a bloody conflict between prointegration and proindependence militias, but failing to cite police or military involvement in creating the violence.

With such indictments, the rights defendants could not be charged with crimes against humanity, but merely with ordinary offenses, they said.

They also said that prosecutors did not elaborate the findings of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) which stated there was widespread, systematic murder and torture of civilians.

Barman said he was optimistic that the Supreme Court judges would overturn the earlier verdict as long as they acted in accordance with their conscience.

James Pardede led the prosecution of Timbul, while Darmono prosecuted the other five defendants.

Separately, foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda asserted that the U.S. government had no right to interfere in the process of the East Timor human rights trials in Indonesia.

"I appeal to the U.S. not to make any judgment on the ongoing process," he said, as quoted by Antara.

Wirayuda said the current process was still in its initial stages and many additional legal steps could still be taken by the parties involved.

In the 1999 vote, some 80 percent of the East Timorese population registered a preference to separate from Indonesia.

There was a series of killings before, during and after the 1999 vote, with some 1,000 people being killed and buildings set ablaze.