Why this delay of trials?

Why this delay of trials?

East Timor trial in three months. So ran the main headline of
The Jakarta Post on Feb. 17, 2000. Attorney General Marzuki
Darusman was quoted as saying that trials of those accused of
involvement in the campaign of terror and destruction in East
Timor last year would begin within that time frame. "Within three
to four weeks there will be a number of suspects named", he said.

It is now fully five months since that statement. Is it too
much to ask what is going on? Is it too much to ask for an
explanation for the delay? Some may dismiss this as a minor case
of water-treading. It is not. It concerns a case on which
Indonesia has expended much political capital, not to mention
nationalist self-righteousness in the belief that it can bring to
account those responsible for a range of crimes against humanity
that could, it may be forcefully argued, include genocide --
"destruction in whole or in part of a people or nation", as
defined by the Geneva Conventions and international customary
law.

It is all too easy to imagine the types of obstruction, not to
mention downright deception, that the Attorney General's team may
be encountering. This, however, is not an excuse for the Attorney
General's office not to issue a "state of progress assessment".

DAVID JARDINE

Jakarta