Timor Leste leaders ready to face international court
Timor Leste leaders ready to face international court
Agence France-Presse, Dili
The top two leaders of Timor Leste on Monday separately said
that, should the need arise, they were ready to appear in
international courts judging past human rights violations.
"For violence from 1987 onwards, others should not have any
headaches because I am the one who is prepared to account for
them," President Xanana Gusmao told journalists here.
Gusmao in 1987 began to head the military wing of the pro-
independence Fretilin Timor Leste movement, fighting the
occupation by Indonesia.
He said that as a former guerrilla leader, he was also
prepared to account for violence blamed on the Fretilin between
1975 and 1986.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who is one of the founders of
the Fretilin and its secretary general, said he was also prepared
to appear in court over past rights violations if necessary.
"I am ready anytime," he said. "Even tomorrow I would be
ready."
So far there has been no call for former rebels to face
international justice over alleged past rights violations.
However, many abroad and in Timor Leste have called for
recrimination over deadly violence by pro-Jakarta militias during
Timor Leste's 1999 drive for independence.
Militia gangs, which the United Nations has said were
recruited and directed by Indonesia's military, went on an arson
and killing spree before and after the Timor Leste people voted
for independence in a UN-sponsored August 1999 ballot.
They killed about 1,400 independence supporters and laid waste
to much of the infrastructure in the half-island, which was a
Portuguese colony before Indonesia annexed and invaded it in the
mid-1970s.
An Indonesian tribunal set up to try military officers and
officials for atrocities in Timor Leste has drawn international
criticism for failing to jail any Indonesians, prompting calls
for an international tribunal.
The leader of the two neighboring nations, however, have
rejected prosecutions in favor of looking toward the future
between tiny Timor Leste and the population giant Indonesia.
They have set up a bilateral commission of truth and
friendship to address the past right violations.
Timor Leste gained full independence in May 2002 after more
than two years of UN stewardship.