Habibie to testify in Timor human-rights trial
AFP 11 March 03
JAKARTA
- Former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie is to testify at a
human-rights court hearing cases of atrocities in Timor Leste in 1999,
a report
said yesterday.
As president,
Mr Habibie - in a surprise move - had authorised
the United Nations to hold a self-determination ballot in Timor Leste,
a former
Portuguese territory Jakarta annexed in 1976.
The Timorese
voted overwhelmingly in August 1999 for independence despite abloody intimidation
campaign by
army-backed pro-Jakarta militias.
Mr Doddy
Yudhista, spokesman for the private
think tank, the Habibie Centre, was quoted by the Detikcom online news
service
as saying the former president would answer a summons and testify on March
20, a Thursday.
The report
did not say in which trial he would give evidence, but
Thursdays are usually the hearings in the case of Major General Adam
Damiri, who
headed the military command overseeing security in Timor Leste.
Damiri and
two
other officers are the last defendants awaiting verdicts on charges of
crimes
against humanity. The others are former military commanders Noer Muis
and Tono
Suratman.
Dr Habibie,
who has been living mostly in Germany since he stepped
down in 1999, also met President Megawati Sukarnoputri for the first time
in her presidency yesterday.