The establishment of a Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF)
by the Indonesian and East Timorese governments has been severely
criticised by a group of non-governmental organisations in East
Timor and Indonesia. They see this as a hasty move and suspect that
it is the result of political deals struck between the two states.
These strong criticisms were contained in a joint statement issued
by NGOs in Indonesia and East Timor at a press conference on Friday,
held at the office of the Commisision for the Disappeared and Victims
of Violence in Jakarta. They called on the two states to render
an account for the establishment of the CTF to the parliaments and
the public in both countries.
The NGOs from East Timor consist of Perkumpulan Hukum, Asasi Manusia
dan Keadilan (HAK), Judicial System Monitoring Program, Fokupers,
Lao Hamutuk, SAHE, Forum Tau Matan and Khadalak Salimutu. The NGOs
from Indonesia are the Human Rights Working Group, Kontras, PBHI
and Imparsial.
The statement was read out at the press conference by Usman Hamid
of Kontras, in the company of Amado Hei of Perkumpulan HAK, Choirul
Anam of the HRWG, Atnike Sigiro of Elsam and Alex Flor of Watch
Indonesia.
Amado said that they reject the establishment of the CTF because
it is in grave conflict with the real situation in East Timor. Moreover,
the decision taken by the two governments is unconstitutional as
it fails to comply with the constitutions of the two countries which
mandate the states to deal with crimes against humanity perpetrated
in East Timor in 1999.
'At the present stage, we are awaiting the evaluation of the UN
and the formation of the Commission of Experts by the UN. We regard
the CTF as ignoring all the procedures undertaken up to the present
by the UN in East
Timor, namely the Commission for the Recognition of East Timor Truth
and Reconciliation which is to complete its report in July this
year,' said Amado.
The two groups of NGOs therefore deeply regret the establishment
of the CTF which they consider as disregarding justice for the victims
of serious human rights violations in East Timor.
At the same time, the NGOs welcome the establishment of the Commission
of Experts set up by the General Secretary of the UN.
'We suspect that political deals lie behind the hasty establishment
of the CTF. This is also evident from the shoddy wording of the
CTF,' said Usman
Legal impunity
Measures to revise the CTF wording amount to nothing more than
changing a few words while the content remains the same. For instance,
the word 'amnesty' in 14 (e) was replaced by 'forgiveness', and
the sentence
'rehabilitation for those accused of arbitrarily violating human
rights' was replaced by ' rehabilitation for those accused of violating
human rights where the accusation was erroneous'. 'This paragraph
legalises impunity for perpetrators who have already been tried
in the two countries,' Usman said. [Note from TAPOL; most of those
tried in Indonesia were in fact acquitted.]
Under 'objectives', the sentence which reads 'to affirm conclusive
truth' has now been reworded as ' to affirm the final truth'.
These revisions show that the CTF has been set up for purely practical
reasons, while failing to establish firmly-based long-lasting mutual
relations between the countries. On the contrary, they forgive the
violators of human rights.
The CTF as at present constituted is not in accord with the joint
statement issued by Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda
and East Timorese foreign minister Ramos Horta., which declared
that impunity would not be included in the CTF.
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Croydon CR7 8HW, UK.
tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904 fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322
tapol@gn.apc.org http://tapol.gn.apc.org
