UNHCHR steps up pressure on Indonesia

UNHCHR steps up pressure on Indonesia

Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
stepped up its pressure on Wednesday for Indonesia to act swiftly
against militiamen and others connected to human rights abuses in
East Timor in 1999, promising to send international observers to
monitor an upcoming rights tribunal.

At the end of a three-day visit to Indonesia on Wednesday,
UNHCHR Chairman Leandro Despouy told the press that, by March 18,
he hoped to be able to report to the Geneva-based commission that
an ad hoc trial -- based on international standards of promptness
and fairness and conforming with Indonesian law -- was already
underway.

"We view the establishment of the ad hoc tribunal as maximum
cooperation. The presence of international observers would be
unavoidable; the observers will come," to monitor the
proceedings, Despouy said, without further elaboration.

Despouy arrived here on Monday to get first-hand information
on steps being taken by Jakarta to bring to justice those guilty
of mass human rights violations in East Timor before and after a
UN-sponsored referendum on independence in 1999.

During his visit, Despouy met with President Megawati
Soekarnoputri and officials from the Justice and Human Rights
Ministry, the Supreme Court, and Attorney General M.A. Rachman.

On Monday, he told the Megawati administration to get serious
about the upcoming human rights tribunal.

While offering a positive note on Indonesia's effort in
establishing the tribunal, Despouy added that the court should
meet international parameters so as to have credibility with the
international community.

In his meeting with Attorney General Rahman on Wednesday,
Despouy received assurance that those responsible for the 1999
killing of Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes in East Timor would
also be brought to justice.

"Investigation by the Dutch government in East Timor has
allowed for submission of evidence to the court," Despuoy said.

Before and after the UN-sponsored ballot 1999, in which East
Timorese overwhelmingly voted to break away from Indonesia, local
militias -- financed and backed by the military -- went on a
rampage throughout the territory, slaughtering hundreds of pro-
independence East Timorese.

Human rights activists and East Timor's transitional
government, represented by East Timor Public Administration's
Department of Foreign Affairs, Philipe Rodriguez, have threatened
to bring the human rights violators before an international
tribunal.

After several delays, on Jan. 14, President Megawati issued
decree No. 6/2000 establishing the long-awaited ad hoc tribunal
to study evidence against reported human rights abusers in East
Timor and the Tanjung Priok incident in 1984.

Thus far, no trial date has been set.

The suspects in the cases include, Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, who
headed the Udayana military Command; Brig. Gen. Suhartono
Suratman and Brig. Gen. M. Nur Muis, former commander of the Dili
Military Command; Col. Yayat Sudrajat, then head of Tribuana Task
Force, and Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, the former East Timor police
chief.