RI told to get serious with rights tribunal

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.