UN
Prosecutors' Call for East Timor Hearing Denied
By
Shawn Donnan in Jakarta
Financial Times; Feb 19, 2004
A US judge in East Timor yesterday rejected a request by United
Nations prosecutors for a public hearing on the evidence against
retired General Wiranto, a leading Indonesian presidential candidate,
in connection with the 1999 violence in the former Indonesian province.
Mr Wiranto was indicted by UN prosecutors a year ago. Since then,
however, the prosecutors have become frustrated with a three-judge
panel's repeated delays in issuing an arrest warrant for the former
defence
minister.
Jakarta has refused to hand over Indonesians charged with crimes
against humanity to a UN-backed panel hearing cases in East Timor.
As a result, arrest warrants registered with Interpol have been
seen as one of the few measures available to enforce any kind of
justice because they limit suspects' ability to travel internationally.
In a fresh effort to secure a warrant, prosecutors last month
requested a public hearing to air 13,000 pages of evidence they
have against Mr Wiranto and seven other senior Indonesian figures
charged with crimes against humanity in the same indictment.
All are accused of "command responsibility" for a bloody
campaign by Indonesia's military and pro-Jakarta militias in 1999
that left 1,400 people dead.
But Judge Phillip Rapoza, a Massachusetts appellate judge serving
on the UN-backed panel hearing "serious crimes" cases
in East Timor, yesterday rejected the request.
"There
is no precedent in international criminal procedure for such a proposal,"
he wrote.
Judges were
continuing to review the evidence against General Wiranto, Judge
Rapoza wrote, and "the best efforts of the prosecutor may yet
bear fruit".
He warned the
review would require "judicial time and patience" because
of "the number and gravity of the charges".
Judge Rapoza
refused to comment on how long such a review might take. UN prosecutors
in East Timor also refused to comment on the decision.
General Wiranto
is one of two leading candidates for the presidential nomination
of the Golkar party, the former political vehicle of strongman Suharto.
The party is leading in opinion polls and is widely expected to
win parliamentary elections April 5.
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