U.S. openly critical of RI prosecutors in E. Timor rights trial
U.S. openly critical of RI prosecutors in E. Timor rights trial
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The inability of state prosecutors to construct a case regarding
numerous murders and incidents of torture in East Timor in 1999
into a crimes against humanity indictment has led to the
acquittal of six rights defendants last week, an activist said on
Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. broke its silence on Tuesday, expressing
disappointment over Indonesian prosecutors' handling of human
rights cases that ended in acquittals.
Ifdhal Kasim of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy
(Elsam) said the prosecutors had described various murders and
tortures in East Timor in 1999 as part of local bloody conflicts
between prointegration and proindependence militias, thus
branding them as ordinary crimes.
"They (the prosecutors) did not try to cite police or military
involvement in creating the conflict, but only charged them with
failing to prevent or stop their middle- and low-ranking officers
from resorting to violence in East Timor. It's not surprising
that the judges acquitted the defendants of the charges," Ifdhal
told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
According to Ifdhal, a crime against humanity indictment would
only have been valid if it had revealed the existence of state
policy to attack people there.
"Prosecutors should also have elaborated on what the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had earlier identified as
widespread, systematic murders and torture of civilians," Ifdhal
said.
"They clearly did not uphold the interests of victims but
simply played a role in preventing the cases being heard by an
international tribunal."
The country's first-ever human rights tribunal acquitted last
week six military and police officers of gross human rights
violations in East Timor after its population voted to break away
from Indonesia in 1999 after a UN-organized referendum.
Eighteen military and police officers, government officials
and civilians have been brought before the tribunal over
atrocities committed before and after the plebiscite, but so far
only former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares has
been found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail, far below
the 10 years demanded by prosecutors.
All the verdicts have drawn criticism at home and abroad.
Calls for the establishment of an international tribunal are
mounting.
In Washington, deputy State Department spokesman Philip T.
Reeker said Washington was not pleased with the prosecutions of
the seven defendants, six of whom were found not guilty of
committing abuses in East Timor in 1999.
"Without commenting on the specific verdicts, which are
subject to appeal, the U.S. is nevertheless disappointed that
prosecutors in these cases did not fully use the resources and
evidence available to them from the UN and elsewhere in
documenting the atrocities that occurred in East Timor," he said
in a statement.
Separately, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office Barman
Zahir denied claims that state prosecutors had not maximized
efforts to charge the suspects with human rights violations in
East Timor.
"We have taken all necessary action, presenting both weak and
strong witnesses and evidence to the trial. It's the judges who
did not have the courage to find the six suspects guilty," he
told the Post.