RI, Timor Leste to announce commission members next week

RI, Timor Leste to announce commission members next week

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Indonesia and Timor Leste will continue working on a
reconciliation plan through the Commission of Truth and
Friendship (CTF) despite a UN team's recommendation for an
international tribunal, Indonesian foreign minister Hassan
Wirayuda says.

After a meeting with the Timor Leste delegation led by his
counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta, Hasan said on Friday that the two
governments would announce the name of 10 members of the
commission next week.

The two governments agreed last year to set up a commission to
deal with human rights atrocities committed by pro-Jakarta
militias in the wake of the 1999 vote for independence in Timor
Leste, formerly known as East Timor.

In March, Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Xanana
Gusmao of Timor Leste signed an agreement in which they agreed to
appoint five Indonesians and five Timorese to work in the
commission, which is to be funded by both governments.

"According to the framework agreement, each country picks up
five names as candidates for the commission and three more as
alternates. The two governments must consult each other on the
candidates before announcing their names.

"On our side, we hope we can finish the consultation next
week. We already have the names. These persons have high
integrity and we expect them to be able to carry out the
herculean task of the commission: They have to finish their job
in a year, to dig up the truth, to find the persons or parties
responsible (for the 1999 violence) and finally to push for
reconciliation," Hassan said.

Horta said that the names of the prospective commissioners
would be announced simultaneously in Jakarta and Dili.

Both Hassan and Horta expressed their disappointment in a
joint statement from the UN Commission of Experts appointed by
Secretary General Kofi Annan. The commission's three members
visited Indonesia earlier this year and submitted their report to
the United Nations last month.

"Both parties shared the opinion that the Secretary-General's
Report of the Commission of Experts to the UN Security Council
does not promote the process of reconciliation, and agreed to
continue with joint efforts to begin the work of the CTF within
the time frame that was agreed upon," the joint statement said.

The Indonesian government has said that it is prioritizing
reconciliation with Timor Leste but has insisted this would
include bringing all human rights violators to justice.

Observers, however, have expressed skepticism about the joint
commission, arguing that it is merely a ploy by Indonesia to
whitewash any human rights violations committed by its citizens.

The government set up an Ad Hoc Human Rights Court for Timor
Leste in Jakarta. The Indonesian Attorney General's Office later
indicted 18 military and police personnel, two government
officials and a militia leader for crimes.

Of the 18 who were tried, only six were convicted, and five of
those convictions were ultimately overturned on appeal.

The commission report said Indonesia's efforts to secure
justice had been "manifestly inadequate". It urged the United
Nations Security Council to establish and international criminal
tribunal to try the perpetrators unless the government took
"substantive action" within six months.