Soldiers said out of line in East Timor killing
Soldiers said out of line in East Timor killing
JAKARTA (JP): Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono yesterday said that some members of the Armed Forces (ABRI) violated procedures in last month's killing of six people in East Timor.
Moerdiono said Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung reported the incident 10 days ago to President Soeharto. The President then called for an immediate inquiry and for the soldiers responsible to be punished.
"That could mean court martial," he told reporters after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.
According to Moerdiono, the ABRI chief reported to Soeharto that some soldiers "acted beyond established procedures" during the incident.
Details of the Jan. 12 incident in Gariana, a village in the Maubara district of the Liquisa regency, are still not clear.
East Timor military chief Col. Kiki Syahnakri said earlier that the six killed were all members of the Fretilin, an armed separatist movement. Kiki also insisted that they were all killed during an armed contact after they resisted arrest.
Some local East Timorese, according to foreign press reports, said they were all civilians.
Kiki was quoted by Antara as saying last Friday that there was strong evidence the six were guerrillas because the military found important documents on them. The documents reportedly belong to Coni Santana, the Fretilin leader.
Syahnakri said his troops ambushed the Timorese after being tipped off by locals annoyed with the guerrillas.
"The six were Fretilin members who often rob the local people," he asserted.
Armed Forces chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Syarwan Hamid announced yesterday that a fact finding team comprising seven officers, led by Brig. Gen. Sumarna T. from the ABRI Inspectorat General, was sent to East Timor on Feb. 7 to investigate the incident.
Council
Syarwan said in a statement that the Army Chief of Staff had been asked to form a Military Honorary Council to follow up the results of the investigation and determine the proper course of action.
It has been more than three years since the Army has formed such a council. Last time was in reaction to the bloody clashes between troops and East Timorese demonstrators in Dili, capital of East Timor, on Nov. 12, 1991.
The council, led by Maj. Gen. Feisal Tanjung, then the chief of the Army Staff and Command College, later recommended action be taken against 19 soldiers, including two senior officers. Some were expelled from the force and a number of junior field officers were later court martialled.
The National Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday also announced that it was sending a three-person fact finding team, led by East Timor native Clementino Dos Reis Amaral, to investigate the incident.
This is also similar to the one commissioned by the government in the wake of the Nov. 12, 1991 Dili incident. That commission, led by Justice M. Djaelani, later found that soldiers were excessive when dealing with demonstrators. The commission also determined that there were "about 50" casualties, higher than the original figure given by the military but lower than those given by international non-governmental organizations.
The Liquisa killings have again prompted expressions of concern from several Western embassies, including the United States, Australia and Canada, although not to the same extent as the international uproar that followed the November 1991 incident.
Moerdiono said yesterday that the military had launched the investigation in its own interests and not because of foreign pressure. (emb)