Victim witnesses flown in for East Timor rights trial

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The most eagerly awaited East Timorese victim witnesses have been flown to Jakarta and are expected to appear at this week's hearings as part of the human rights ad hoc trial, an ad hoc human rights prosecutor said on Sunday.

Prosecutor James Pardede told The Jakarta Post that he had information that three of eight victim witnesses summoned to testify to the court had been flown to the capital on Sunday, but would not elaborate further.

"The three (key witnesses) will testify at all three ongoing trials," he said.

Both Pardede and Grant W. Wilson, a liaison officer for the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET), who was contacted later, refused to reveal more about the arrival of the victim witnesses for security reasons.

Their arrival here had been anticipated for the last four weeks as the key witnesses to help the court in the process to substantiate prosecutors' indictments on the alleged perpetrators.

Earlier on Friday, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) indicated that four of the witnesses had ignored, through fear for their own security, a summons to testify and that those who were ready to testify requested immediate transportation back home after testifying in the trials on Tuesday.

The authorities have reportedly assigned police officers to guard the Central Jakarta District Court compound during the hearings, as groups opposed to the victim witnesses, now residing in Jakarta, regularly attend the hearings.

Rights activists believe that the absence or a small number of victim witnesses testifying at the trials of the alleged perpetrators of the 1999 East Timor atrocities would further tarnish the country's image as being not serious in upholding the law and justice in relation to human rights abuses.

Elsam director Ifdhal Kasim suggested that the court hold teleconferenced hearings as an alternative to hearing the victim witnesses in person, as they are now East Timor citizens, should their security while attending trials here be the main problem.

"The absence of serious attempts by state prosecutors to produce the victim witnesses in the courtroom might be considered a deliberate attempt to delay the justice process and would seriously threaten all attempts to deal with crimes against humanity."

The ongoing trial has heard 18 witnesses, besides the testimonies of the seven defendants at each other's trials. The defendants are mostly colleagues and subordinates of each other.

Government Regulation No. 2/2002 on procedures to protect the victims and witnesses of gross human rights violations

Article 4 states that protection of victims and witnesses may include: (a) protection of the victims' or witnesses' personal security from physical or mental threat; (b) withholding their identity; (c) allowing them to testify in court without a face-to-face encounter with the defendants.

Article 5 states that such protection should be based on initiatives taken by law enforcement or security institutions and/or at the victims' or witnesses' request.

Article 8 stipulates that the protection should be free of charge and that all related expenses should be made from the budget of the law enforcement or security institutions involved.