U.S., UN lack will to act on RI 'show trials'

East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii

It's unlikely that Indonesia's "show trials" will convict those most responsible for the killings in East Timor, nor will the international community muster support to do anything about it, according to a new East-West Center publication.

Rather than bring justice, the Jakarta trials thus far seem aimed at whitewashing the Indonesian army's role, holding off a full international tribunal for the violence in East Timor, and convincing the U.S. Congress to resume military aid, writes David Cohen, an adjunct fellow at the East-West Center and director of the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Indonesia began its own Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunals last March in an effort to stave off the creation of a full UN tribunal in East Timor, writes Cohen, who attended the Jakarta trials in May and August.

"Based on the proceedings so far, the Jakarta tribunals seem unlikely to achieve truth, justice or reconciliation," Cohen writes in Seeking Justice on the Cheap: Is the East Timor Tribunal Really a Model for the Future?

"But it is also doubtful that the world could muster the political will to act if credible results are not achieved. Indonesia is not a political backwater like Rwanda or Sierra Leone but a major regional power whose allegiance in the war on terrorism is coveted."

"Indonesia is gambling that the war on terrorism will save them," Cohen said last week at the East-West Center.

The U.S. State Department has criticized Indonesia's handling of its human rights trials. They involve pro-Jakarta militias who were allegedly backed by the Indonesian military and responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 people around the time of the 1999 independence vote in East Timor.

Early this month, four Indonesian military officers and one police official, and the former East Timor police chief were acquitted. The former East Timor governor received a three-year sentence for crimes that normally require a minimum sentence of 10 and one-half years.

The United States suspended military ties with Indonesia after the 1999 violence, and the Leahy Amendment requires accountability by Indonesian forces before military aid resumes. But the Bush administration plans to spend about $50 million in Indonesia over the next two years for counterterrorism programs, most for civilian and police training.

"Australian electronic intercepts have made clear that the highest levels of the Indonesian military orchestrated the violence, but such evidence is unlikely to find its way into the Jakarta courtroom," Cohen writes. If this trend continues, "even the most ardent supporters of a full resumption of military ties will be hard put to argue that this demonstrates the kind of accountability" the Leahy Amendment envisioned.

The Jakarta trials have seen a very timid prosecution, a well- funded defense and weakly worded indictments, Cohen writes.

Almost none of the Timorese witnesses have appeared, with most of the prosecution's evidence coming from military and police officers who support the defendant's case.

Meanwhile, the tribunal in East Timor is also having problems. Because the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals have been extremely expensive, the United Nations is seeking a cheaper alternative: the "hybrid" tribunal, which is negotiated by treaty between the United Nations and a national government and is composed of international and domestic judges and prosecutors.

Results in East Timor so far have not been good, Cohen writes, leading to a court that is "disorganized, understaffed, vulnerable to local politics and features a defense unit that is unfairly outgunned by the prosecution."

Cohen, who was in East Timor in January, says Timorese public defenders lack trial experience and the Timorese judges have no prior judicial experience; the tribunal lacks staff and proper facilities, and public defenders lack an adequate budget; and interpreters are not professionally trained.

"The UN's choice of a hybrid tribunal for the crimes committed in East Timor risks replacing one injustice with another and raises a question that the UN needs to answer: Is a minimally credible tribunal better than none at all?"

(Documents and reports from the Jakarta trials are available at the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Website at http://warcrimescenter.berkeley.edu)