UN barred from grilling TNI troops

UN barred from grilling TNI troops

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Adm. Widodo A.S.
said here on Tuesday that Jakarta would not allow its troops to
be questioned by UN investigators over last year's violence in
East Timor.

"With regard to due process of law, no TNI officer will be
questioned by UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration
in East Timor)," Widodo told reporters after meeting President
Abdurrahman Wahid at Merdeka Palace.

"The government's stance on this is clear -- we reject any
foreign intervention in the process -- we have our own procedures
and legal system," he said.

But Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security
Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that TNI's objection to
the questioning was "being discussed" with the Attorney General's
Office and the National Police.

"There is an ongoing consultation between the Attorney
General, the TNI chief and the police chief, we'll see what
result they produce," he told journalists after meeting with
Abdurrahman late on Tuesday.

Lawyers representing the military and police officers
implicated in the East Timor violence rejected last week the
planned questioning of their clients by UNTAET investigators
saying that it was beyond their jurisdiction.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has repeatedly said,
however, that UNTAET representatives would only attend the
questioning and the inquiry would be conducted by Indonesian
prosecutors.

He also said that the questioning was based on a Memorandum of
Understanding between the Attorney General's Office and UNTAET
last April.

On Tuesday, Marzuki again tried to allay the fears of the
lawyers, saying their allegations that UNTAET had the power to
arrest suspects or even bring them before an international
tribunal were "fictitious."

"We have a commitment that all charges of human rights
violations in East Timor will be prosecuted under Indonesian
law."

He said either the lawyers did not understand the MoU -- which
needed further explanation -- or they were "deliberately creating
problems."

Earlier in the day, a former pro-integration spokesman,
Basilio Dias Araujo, became the first witness to appear at the
Attorney General's Office.

Basilio said, however, that he only went to ask for a
postponement of the questioning and a guarantee that he would not
be handed over to the United Nations.

Araujo's lawyer, Suhardi Somomoeljono, said his client would
refuse to be questioned until the Attorney General's Office
guaranteed that no former East Timor militiamen or civil servants
would be handed over to the UN.

Earlier on Monday, UNTAET filed the first dossiers containing
charges of crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian troops
and pro-integration militias during last year's violence in East
Timor.

In a press statement made available to the media on Tuesday,
the UN said the dossiers accused eleven suspects of a total of 13
murders committed in the East Timor town of Los Palos between
April 21 and Sept. 25, 1999.

According to the statement, one of the suspects is an officer
of the Army's elite Special Forces (Kopassus), Lt. Sayful Anwar.
He was accused of mutilating, torturing and murdering Averisto
Lopez on April 21, 1999 at the base of a pro-Jakarta militia
group, Team Alfa.

Of the eleven accused, nine have been detained in prisons in
East Timor, including Team Alfa's de facto commander Joni
Marques, the statement said.

It said that one of the militiamen, Mautersa Moniz, is still
at large.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, UNTAET said in a statement that it
"deplored" the assault by pro-Jakarta East Timorese on its senior
officials at the House of Representatives (DPR) building on
Monday.

The statement said UNTAET and the government of Indonesia had
exchanged "diplomatic Note Verbales" on Monday regarding the
incident.

"UNTAET underlined that the security was clearly inadequate
and requested the Indonesian authorities to take stern action
against the perpetrators of this attack and ensure that this type
of incident is not repeated," the statement said. (byg/bby)
Editorial -- Page 4