Australian Financial Review
August 7, 2004

Just two Punished for Timor Atrocities

Andrew Burrell | Jakarta

The only four Indonesians found guilty of the wave of killings and destruction in East Timor in 1999 have all had their convictions and jail terms overturned by a Jakarta appeals court.

The High Court verdict almost certainly means that no Indonesian will ever be
punished for the East Timor atrocities that shocked the world five years ago.

It also confirms suspicions that Indonesia's senior military personnel remain
largely immune from being punished for gross human rights abuses.

The Indonesian army-backed militia violence against East Timorese independence supporters killed about 1500 people and destroyed much of the territory's infrastructure. It also prompted an international outcry that resulted in Australia leading a peacekeeping force to the then Indonesian province.

Of the 18 original defendants who appeared before a Jakarta ad hoc human
rights tribunal, just six were found guilty of abuses in East Timor, sparking claims the tribunal was a sham.

The High Court has now quashed the convictions and jail terms of four of those six men in a decision handed down on July 29 but made public on Friday.

Three of them are active military officers: the former military commander in East Timor, Major-General Adam Damiri, his then deputy Noer Muis, and the former Dili district commander Soedjarwo.

The fourth Indonesian to be acquitted, Hulman Gultom, was the head of the Dili police at the time.

All of the security officers had remained free pending the outcome of their appeals.

No charges were brought against the former Indonesian military commander
Wiranto, who has been indicted for war crimes by a United Nations-backed
tribunal based in Dili but who is unlikely to face trial.

The only two men whose convictions will stand are ethnic East Timorese: former governor Abilio Soares and the notorious militia commander Eurico Gutteres.

However, the High Court has reduced Gutteres' jail sentence from 10 years to
five years.

A judge hearing the case, Basoeki, told Koran Tempo newspaper that Gutteres'
sentence had been halved because he had already suffered by being forced to
leave his East Timor homeland.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General's Office, Kemas Yahya, said on Friday
that his office had not received the court's verdict and would decide later whether to launch an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The head of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, Hendardi, said the verdict
confirmed his assumption that "this has been a fabricated legal process" from
the beginning.

He blamed a lack of international pressure for the fact that only two men had
been found guilty.

"When the international community is not paying attention to this issue, they
will come up with this kind of decision," he said.

Indonesia set up the special court to head off the establishment of a powerful UN war crimes tribunal similar to those established in Rwanda and Bosnia, which also suffered human rights atrocities.