RI, UNTAET ties in rights probe to go on

RI, UNTAET ties in rights probe to go on

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has pledged to extend a 2000 Memorandum of
Understanding with the United Nations Transitional Administration
in East Timor (UNTAET), which has allowed the two sides to
cooperate in their prosecution of alleged perpetrators of human
rights violations in East Timor in 1999.

Acting special representative of the UNTAET secretary-general,
Dennis McNamara, said here on Friday that such cooperation would
include sharing evidence and information, and collaboration in
respect of both countries' investigations into the incidents that
took place in the former Indonesian province.

McNamara visited Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril
Ihza Mahendra at the latter's office. The delegation also met
Attorney General M.A. Rachman and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hassan Wirayuda earlier in the day.

Yusril corroborated the extension of the MoU, saying it did
not need the House's ratification since it was not a binding
agreement but merely a technical arrangement on how the
government and UNTAET could work together in the investigation
and prosecution process.

The MOU was signed by former attorney general Marzuki Darusman
and UNTAET in April 2000. It aroused controversy when UNTAET
investigators -- through the Attorney General's Office --
summoned several top military officers for questioning as
witnesses.

The House of Representatives deemed the MoU to be invalid as
it had not secured the legislators' approval.

The same MoU had earlier been used by Indonesian investigators
to question East Timorese as witnesses.

Under the MoU, four Indonesian investigators will fly to East
Timor on Wednesday to question four East Timorese witnesses in
connection with the reopening of the investigation into the
killing of Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes, a correspondent for
The Financial Times.

McNamara also clarified that there was no agreement with
Rachman on whether to halt the investigation of the murder of
five Australian-based journalists in Balibo, East Timor, which
took place on Oct. 16, 1975, saying that UNTAET would keep it
open it based upon requests from several governments.

Yusril, however, rejected UNTAET's request to closely watch
over the process of the ad hoc trial for East Timor rights abuse.

"I told them they don't have the right to say that. We only
took three years to investigate and to prepare the trial for the
East Timor cases that took place in 1999. It's not slow compared
to the trial against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic," he
remarked.

UNTAET has complained about the slow process of the
investigation into East Timor human rights violations, for which
18 suspects will stand trial.