UN criticizes RI over slow pace of justice for E. Timor
UN criticizes RI over slow pace of justice for E. Timor
Associated Press, Dili
A senior United Nations official in East Timor criticized
Indonesia on Wednesday for its slow progress in bringing to
justice those responsible for atrocities committed in 1999 after
the territory voted for independence.
Speaking after a recent trip to Jakarta where he met
Indonesia's Attorney General Muhamad Abdul Rachman, UN deputy
head of mission Dennis McNamara said he wanted to see more
progress made by Indonesia in bringing a number of high-profile
cases to court.
"We have many issues outstanding and need much more active co-
operation from the Indonesian side if we are going to make real
progress," he told reporters in East Timor's capital Dili.
"The Indonesian process has not been an adequate process at
all," McNamara added.
Hundreds of people were killed and about 250,000 others forced
to flee their homes in a three-week rampage by the Indonesian
army and its militia proxies after East Timor voted to secede
from Indonesia in August, 1999.
Earlier this year, the Indonesian government announced it
would establish a special human rights court to prosecute
soldiers and militiamen accused of atrocities. Twenty-three
suspects, including some senior army officers, have been accused
of taking part in the violence.
However, to date no suspects have been brought to trial and
human rights activists have criticized Jakarta for failing to
take action against top army and police commanders.
In Jakarta, former Attorney General Marzuki Darusman rejected
criticism of the pace of prosecutions, saying trials would start
as scheduled in December.
But he too criticized the government's failure to prosecute
military chiefs, who he said were in overall control of the
situation in East Timor in 1999.
"The key issue remains command responsibility," he told The
Associated Press. "The government has not yet decided how to
handle that."
McNamara's comments came two days after the trial of a pro-
Indonesian militiaman -- accused of killing a New Zealand
peacekeeper in East Timor last year -- was adjourned indefinitely
after he claimed he was too ill to attend.