Row erupts over report on Timor Leste killings

Row erupts over report on Timor Leste killings

John Aglionby, Guardian News Service/Jakarta

The Timor Leste President, Xanana Gusmao, on Monday presented to
parliament the long-awaited report of the nation's Reception,
Truth and Reconciliation Commission but criticized many of the
key recommendations and accused the commissioners of "grandiose
idealism".

Gusmao recommended that the 2,500-page document not be made
public, implying that it would not be in the national interest to
do so.

Commissioners and human rights activists reacted with dismay,
accusing the former hero of the resistance struggle against
Indonesia's 24-year oppressive rule of cowering before "certain
interests", both domestic and international, rather than
prioritizing the people's desire for justice.

Timor Leste was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and annexed the
following year, a move never recognized by the United Nations.
Some 200,000 people were killed during the occupation before it
won its independence in a UN-organized referendum in 1999.

The commission, established in 2002, was tasked with looking
at all killings during the occupation, including the several
thousand committed by Timorese. One of its key recommendations
was that Timor Leste should pursue justice for the victims by
prosecuting the alleged military atrocities.

Gusmao told parliament - according to an official English
translation obtained by the Guardian - that rather than seeing
the prosecution of Indonesian soldiers as the way to justice,
"the best justice, the true justice, was the recognition by the
international community of the right to ... independence".

The commission conducted scores of town hall meetings and took
more than 8,000 statements. Aniceto Guterres, the commission
chairman, told the Guardian that the majority of people they
talked to wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice and
the victims to receive compensation. "That's what we found; that
people want justice," he said. "We knew people weren't going to
like our findings and accept them but we didn't work to make
certain people happy, we worked to reveal the truth about what
happened."

Gusmao said the commissioners had been almost irresponsible in
their recommendations. "The grandiose idealism that they (the
commissioners) possess is well manifested to the point that it
goes beyond conventional political boundaries," he told
parliament. "The report says the 'absence of justice... is a
fundamental obstacle in the process of building a democratic
society'. My reply to that would be not necessarily."

Indonesia and Timor Leste have held tribunals into the
violence which surrounded the 1999 referendum. All Indonesian
military and police personnel prosecuted by Jakarta were either
acquitted or freed on appeal. No one has been extradited to stand
trial in Timor Leste.

Guterres said he was "rather disappointed" that the report
will remain unpublished for the foreseeable future. Legislators
will decide probably in the new year. Amado Hei, a program
officer with the Human Rights Foundation in Timor Leste, said:
"The victims hoped that something would happen with this report
but it looks like it won't happen."