East Timor: Dili's FM Opposes Push for UN War Crimes Court

Dili, August 9 (Lusa) - East Timor`s foreign minister said Monday that he opposed calls from various human rights groups for a United Nations court to punish Indonesian officials implicated in his country`s bloody breakaway from Jakarta five years ago.

José Ramos Horta, in comments to Lusa, said last week`s announcement
of the acquittal by a Jakarta court of four ex- Indonesian security officers on Timor war crimes charges "will rebound on Indonesia, which will have great difficulty justifying it to the international community".

However, Dili`s top diplomat noted that the creation of an international court to try Indonesian military personnel implicated in the bloodshed of 1999 would "lead to problems in Dili`s relations with Jakarta".

Dili's leaders, most of whom were involved in their nation's long and bitter independence fight against Indonesia, say friendly ties with their large neighbor, and political stability within it, is paramount and should not be jeopardized by excessive concern with justice.

The four Indonesians, including three former senior army officers, had been convicted by a Jakarta war crimes court of committing human rights abuses during Dili`s bloody exit from Jakarta's quarter-century rule in 1999.

More than 1,000 people died and most of Timor was left a smoldering wreck after Jakarta`s military and its proxy militias unleashed a wave of violence around the time of Dili`s independence vote in September, 1999.

The appeal court also halved a 10-year sentence against a Timorese leader of a pro-Jakarta militia.

The reversal of the decision against the Jakarta officials means that all Indonesian security personnel linked to the violence of 1999 have walked free, a development that has been slammed by several international rights groups.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the quashing of the convictions showed that "Indonesia`s courts are not all independent and are incapable of providing justice for the atrocities committed in Timor".

"Indonesia leaves the international community with no option other than to open judicial proceedings relating to these horrendous crimes", said the US rights watchdog.

Ramos Horta, a Nobel Laureate, said he understood "the dilemma of the Jakarta authorities" in making its "extremely influential" armed forces accountable for the mayhem and suffering they inflicted on the Timorese people.

He said Dili would prefer to see and international truth and reconciliation commission, rather than a tribunal.

His opposition to a UN court to try these officials has been slammed by New Zealand, whose foreign minister, Phil Goff, joined human rights groups in criticizing the acquittal of Jakarta`s security forces.

Indonesia`s legal system has totally failed to bring to book those responsible for killing hundreds of innocent Timorese, said Goff