'Troops erred in Liquisa incident'

'Troops erred in Liquisa incident'

CILODONG, Bogor, West Java (JP): The army has acknowledged that troops deviated from standard procedures in the incident which took place on Jan. 12 in Liquisa, East Timor, in which six East Timorese were killed.

Army Chief of Staff, General Raden Hartono, said yesterday that the troops, who were on a routine patrol of the Liquisa area, had deviated from standard procedures during the operation.

However, Hartono refused to give details of the errors made.

The National Commission for Human Rights announced recently that it had found that the troops had violated basic human rights when they killed the six villagers.

Hartono, who was speaking to reporters after attending a celebration of the 34th anniversary of the Army Strategic Reserve Command, said: "Every soldier who is sent to a battle zone should comply with military procedures."

He said that in the military, it is always officers who are held responsible for such incidents, rather than privates.

He said a seven-officer team of the Officers' Honor Council had left for Dili, East Timor, yesterday to further investigate the case, or to follow up the findings of a preliminary investigation conducted by a team from the Armed Forces (ABRI) early last month.

The ABRI team, who conducted an investigation at the site of the tragedy, announced later that the troops had deviated from standard procedures during the operation, but insisted that two of the deceased were rebels and the rest were sympathizers.

"The second team will further investigate what errors were committed, how they occurred and who committed them," he said.

April

He said he expected the team would report to him by early April. Hartono said that, on the basis of the report, he would conclude whether the error had been committed intentionally or not.

"If the error was serious, those responsible will be sent to the military tribunal but, if not (serious), they would only be disciplined by their commanders," he said.

Hartono said the team would investigate how the victims were killed and how they were buried.

"It is also possible for the team to exhume the bodies of the victims in the course of its investigation," he said.

However, Hartono said that the six victims were not civilians and that the fatal incident had not been a violation of human rights.

"Seen from the military's point of view, those killed in the bloody clash were members of the Fretilin armed separatist group," he said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) hailed the Human Rights Commission's findings yesterday, saying that they should be revealed to the public in detail, in order to promote the observance of basic rights in East Timor.

"The government should also establish an independent national team to investigate the incident; to complete the findings of the investigations conducted by the Commission and ABRI," the statement said.

The YLBHI said further that any military officers found guilty in relation to the incident should be brought before the military tribunal. (rms)