RI told to get serious with rights tribunal

Annastashya Emmanuelle and Tertiani B. Simandjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) told Indonesia on Monday to get serious about the upcoming rights tribunal, saying the international community was watching the proceedings closely.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office had not yet appointed the state prosecutors for the East Timor case, pending the induction of the 30 recently unveiled ad hoc judges by Chief Justice Bagir Manan later this month.

"The international community will monitor it intensively and is ready to provide technical assistance when needed," UNHCHR Chairman Leandro Despouy told the press after nearly two hours with President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace on Monday.

Despouy said the purpose of his three-day visit to Indonesia was to gather first-hand information about the judicial proceedings for the human rights violations that took place prior to and after the United Nations-organized ballot in East Timor in 1999.

After several delays, the government finally issued Presidential Decree No. 6/2002 last Monday appointing 30 ad hoc judges to try human rights violations in East Timor before and after the 1999 ballot, as well as the 1984 Tandjung Priok shooting incident.

During the UN-sponsored ballot, the East Timorese people overwhelmingly voted to reject autonomy -- and put an end to Indonesia's presence after more than two decades of bloody integration -- triggering unprecedented violence that killed perhaps hundreds of independence supporters in the former Portuguese colony.

The Attorney General's Office has named 19 suspects, including senior and mid-ranking military and police officers such as Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, who headed the Udayana military command which had authority over East Timor, Brig. Gen. Suhartono Suratman and Brig. Gen. M. Nur Muis, former commanders of the Dili military command, Col. Yayat Sudrajat, the head of Tribuana Task Force, and Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, former East Timor police chief.

The date of the tribunal, however, has not yet been confirmed.

Despouy said he appreciated steps taken by the Megawati administration in establishing the ad hoc human rights tribunal, following the country's commitment to process human rights violators through a national process in line with the Indonesian judicial system.

Earlier this month, East Timor's transitional government leaders talked of turning to an international tribunal due to Indonesia's delays in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

The Attorney General's Office has appointed a total of 36 general prosecutors, including state prosecutors, former state prosecutors and military prosecutors, to represent the 12 dossiers on the East Timor atrocity at the tribunal.

"But the general prosecutors will not submit the case to the tribunal until all the judges are officially sworn in, as their ad hoc duty is only valid for 70 days," Attorney General's Office Spokesman Muljohardjo said on Monday.

The Supreme Court is yet to announce the exact date for swearing in of the ad hoc judges.

Prior to his visit to Jakarta, Despouy toured East Timor where he said, there seemed to be a climate and atmosphere of a good relationship developing between East Timor and Indonesia, and constructive progress in terms of the repatriation of refugees.