10 May 2004.
SCU: INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION
East Timor Special Panel Judge Issues Arrest
Warrant For Wiranto
On 10 May 2004, an international judge at the Special Panel for
Serious Crimes in East Timor issued an arrest warrant for retired
General Wiranto. The former Commander of the Armed Forces and Minister
of Defense and Security of the Republic of Indonesia was indicted
in February 2003 along with seven high-level co-accused for crimes
against humanity committed in East Timor in 1999. The indictment
charged Wiranto with command responsibility for murder, deportation
and persecution committed in the context of a widespread and systematic
attack on the civilian population in East Timor. International law
holds commanders criminally responsible if they knew or had reason
to know of the commission of crimes against humanity by those under
their effective control but failed to take reasonable and necessary
measures to prevent the crimes or punish the perpetrators.
The issuance of the warrant comes seven weeks after the filing
of the "Brief in Support of the Application for the Issuance
of an Arrest Warrant for Wiranto" filed by prosecutors for
the Serious Crimes Unit on 19 March 2004. The brief summarised the
relevant law and the over 15,000 pages of evidentiary material that
have been presented to the Special Panels in support of the indictment
and applications for arrest warrants.
The Wiranto Brief is available at www.scu-dili.org.
The Deputy General Prosecutor for Serious Crimes, Nicholas Koumjian
remarks "The issuance of the Wiranto warrant is an important
step in our continuing efforts to bring to justice those responsible
for the violence against the civilian population of East Timor in
1999. It sends a message that the victims have not been forgotten
and that the international community will not tolerate impunity
for those responsible for crimes against humanity, whoever they
are."
While an arrest warrant against co-accused Lt. Col. Yayat Sudrajat
had been issued in November 2003, the applications for warrants
for the six other co-accused still await rulings by the Special
Panel for Serious Crimes..
Since the work of SCU began, 83 indictments have been filed with
the Special Panel for Serious Crimes at Dili District Court with
charges currently pending against 313 accused, most of whom remain
at large and are believed to be outside of East Timor. Since trials
began at the Special Panels, a total of 50 defendants have been
convicted and two acquitted with 34 other accused now in East Timor
in trials that are ongoing or pending. Those convicted include East
Timorese who were members of the Indonesian army or pro-integration
militias and a member of Falintil, the pro-independence force.
For Full Information Visit: www.Scu-Dili.Org Or Contact: scu@un.org
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