Yosfiah named suspect in murder of journalists

Yosfiah named suspect in murder of journalists

DILI, East Timor (AP): UN prosecutors said Saturday they were
considering issuing arrest warrants for three men - including a
former Indonesian government minister - over the slaying of five
foreign journalists in East Timor more than 25 years ago.

Prosecutor-General Mohamed Othman said the world body would
decide within two weeks whether to act against the suspects.

"If the killings are classified as war crimes, the UN
administration can request the arrest and surrender of suspects
under universal jurisdiction," he said.

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald,
investigators have already asked Othman to organize the arrest of
Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah - a former information minister - another
Indonesian, Christoforus da Silva, and an East Timorese, Domingos
Bere.

However, officials in East Timor's capital Dili said arrest
warrants have not yet been issued.

At the time of the killings, Yosfiah was an Indonesian army
captain commanding an elite unit called Team Susi. The unit was
involved in a covert operation to prepare for a full-scale
invasion of what was then Portuguese Timor. Da Silva and Bere
were members of the unit.

Reporter Malcolm Rennie, 28, and cameraman Brian Peters, 29,
both British; reporter Greg Shackleton, 27, and soundman Tony
Stewart, 21, both Australian; and New Zealand cameraman Gary
Cunningham, 27, were killed in the border town of Balibo as the
invaders attacked on Oct. 16, 1975.

At the time, the government in Jakarta claimed the journalists
were caught in a firefight between Indonesian troops and East
Timorese defenders. But witnesses testified that the journalists
were gunned down after surrendering.

Yosfiah has vehemently denied any role in the murders. In 1998
and 1999, he served as information minister in the administration
of President B.J. Habibie, who took over after the ouster of
longtime dictator Soeharto.

UN police have recently completed a seven-month investigation
into the Balibo killings. Several new witnesses who returned to
East Timor following Indonesia's withdrawal in 1999 have also
been questioned.

Othman said the accused could only be tried for war crimes,
and not for murder.

"Under the statute of limitations, after 15 years in Portugal
and 18 years in Indonesia, you can not prosecute for murder," he
said.

Indonesian troops executed another foreign journalist, Roger
East, during amphibious landings in Dili on Dec. 7, 1975. The
Australian reporter was dragged out of his hotel room and shot in
the back of the head on a nearby wharf.