TNI lawyers wish to visit E. Timor to seek truth

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers defending Indonesian Military (TNI) officers suspected of being responsible for violence in East Timor said they would like to visit the territory to prove their clients' innocence.

A government-sanctioned Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Abuses in East Timor (KPP HAM) has alleged that several senior Army officers, including Gen. Wiranto, were in some way responsible for the violence following the Aug. 30 self- determination ballot.

Wiranto, who was TNI commander and defense minister when the violence broke out, is now coordinating minister for political affairs and security.

Spokesman for a legal team representing the military generals Ruhut Sitompul said the team would like to visit East Nusa Tenggara, which is the neighboring province to East Timor, and also East Timor if permitted by the UN administration in the territory.

"If the independent commission can go to west and East Timor, why can't we do the same thing?"

Following a fact-finding visit to East Timor in November, the commission concluded that TNI and the police colluded with prointegration militias in the violence that took place in Indonesia's former province.

Commission chairman Albert Hasibuan said previously that Wiranto and other senior Army officers would be among those summoned for questioning.

Mohamad Assegaf, another lawyer representing the generals, accused the commission on Tuesday of violating the law by publicly naming the generals even though due process was yet to begin.

However in Dili, fresh evidence implicating the military's involvement surfaced on Tuesday when a militia commander confessed to organizing the murder of eight people.

The commander of the Team Alpha militia in Los Palos, Joni Marques, said he was trained by the military and was acting on the orders of the Army's elite Special Force (Kopassus).

He told the commission he was responsible for a Sept. 25 ambush in which eight people -- two nuns, four clergymen, an Indonesian journalist and a teenage girl -- were killed.

The attack took place near Los Palos, some 120 kilometers east of the East Timor capital of Dili, shortly after a multinational peacekeeping force arrived in the territory.

"He clearly stated that he's the one that killed eight people in Los Palos and that he was trained by a Kopassus unit, and that he was ordered also to carry out killings by a number of Kopassus officers," inquiry team member Helmi Fauzi was quoted by AFP as saying.

Marques was interviewed at a Dili jail where he is awaiting trial.

The team members, including women's rights activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, have spoken to some 30 witnesses over the last seven days in their second visit to East Timor.

The commission was set up in late September following Jakarta's refusal to accept the UN inquiry into post-ballot violence in East Timor.

Commission secretary Asmara Nababan said on Tuesday that the team would return to Jakarta on Wednesday and that its members would meet the next day to discuss the latest findings. (byg)