Report: East Timor not
to press for international tribunal over 1999 violence
August 8, 2004 12:42am
AP Online
JAKARTA, Indonesia_Indonesia's failure to punish any police or
military officers over the violence that accompanied East Timor's
1999 independence vote will cause "difficulties" for Jakarta,
East Timor's foreign minister was quoted as saying Sunday.
But Jose Ramos Horta reiterated his government's position of not
supporting
the establishment of a U.N. tribunal to try those responsible for
the bloodshed, which left 1,500 people dead, Koran Tempo reported.
"(An international tribunal) would create problems in relations
between Indonesia and East Timor," Horta was quoted as telling
the Indonesia daily.
An Indonesian appeals court Friday overturned the convictions of
three military officers and a police officer implicated in the violence.
The verdicts meant that all 16 police and military officers originally
indicted have been found innocent despite intense international
pressure on Jakarta to punish those responsible.
"This will create difficulties for Indonesia," Horta
told Tempo. He did not elaborate.
Prosecutors, who have been accused of failing to aggressively pursue
the
cases, can appeal Friday's verdicts to the Supreme Court, but have
not indicated they will do so.
Only two people _ both ethnic East Timorese civilians _ have been
found guilty.
Local and foreign human rights groups have long maintained the
trials were a sham. They are now demanding the United Nations establish
an international tribunal akin to those for Rwanda and the former
Yugoslavia.
Indonesian troops and militiamen they equipped and trained systematically
hunted down independence supporters in the days before and after
the U.N.-sponsored ballot, witnesses and rights groups say. Much
of East Timor was destroyed in the violence, which only ended with
the arrival of international peacekeepers.
East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has not aggressively pushed
Jakarta to
try those responsible for the violence, saying that maintaining
good ties with its giant neighbor is more important.
The United States has criticized the Jakarta trials, but has not
called for an international tribunal to be set up. Washington also
needs to stay on good terms with Indonesia, which it sees as a key
partner in the war on terrorism.
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