Fight
Against Terror Must Include Justice for East Timor
Commentary, Manuela Leong Pereira,
Pacific News Service, Aug 15, 2003
Editor's
Note: As Indonesian authorities struggle to capture those
responsible for terror bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia's own military
officers remain free from prosecution for their crimes against humanity
in
East Timor. Indonesia's powerful ally the United States, the writer says,
must support an international war crimes tribunal for East Timor.
DILI, East
Timor--Indonesian police are scrambling to capture those
responsible for the recent Marriott Hotel blast in Jakarta, and Indonesian
courts are harshly sentencing those convicted in last October's deadly
nightclub bombings in Bali. But when it comes to decades of crimes
committed here in East Timor by the Indonesian military, the guilty still
get off pretty much scot-free.
On Aug.
5, Indonesia's ad hoc Human Rights Court for East Timor announced
its final act. The court sentenced former Indonesian military regional
commander Major General Adam Damiri to a mere three years for his role
in
war crimes and crimes against humanity in East Timor.
In behavior
befitting of a set of trials that Amnesty International
characterized as not "truthful, honest or fair," the prosecutor
in the
Damiri trial failed to introduce damning evidence uncovered by the
government's own human rights commission, and ended by recommending that
the judge acquit Damiri for lack of sufficient proof. Although the judge
convicted him anyway, Damiri's light sentence trivializes the crimes he
participated in.
As a woman
who has seen firsthand the effects of Indonesian military (TNI)
brutality in my homeland of East Timor, I fear that the Marriott bombing
and other terror attacks by Islamic fundamentalists may be used by the
United States as an excuse to strengthen ties with the TNI. Instead,
Washington should help end military impunity by supporting calls for an
international tribunal to support justice, human rights and the rule of
law
in East Timor and Indonesia.
From the
time of its December 1975 invasion through almost 24 years of
occupation, the TNI was responsible for the deaths of well over 200,000
East Timorese -- about one-third of the pre-invasion population. The
U.S.-backed military tortured countless people and raped and sterilized
thousands of women and girls. As a parting blow, after East Timorese voted
overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a U.N.-run vote, the TNI and
its
militias killed more than 1,000, displaced three-quarters of the population
and left much of my country smoldering rubble in September 1999.
In the months
following the 1999 devastation, two U.N. bodies called for
the establishment of an international tribunal, one calling it "fundamental
for the future social and political stability of East Timor." Instead,
the
United Nations gave Indonesia the chance to prosecute its own. Jakarta
responded by establishing a court that focused only on crimes committed
during April and September 1999 and in three of East Timor's 13 regions,
prosecuting only 18 individuals and convicting only five -- two of whom
were East Timorese collaborators. None received a sentence of more than
10
years, and all remain free pending appeal.
The United
Nations also established a hybrid international-East Timorese
court in the former Portuguese colony. Known as the Serious Crimes Unit,
the SCU has indicted some 250 people for crimes committed in 1999,
including then-head of the Indonesian armed forces and Defense Minister
General Wiranto. But Jakarta has refused to cooperate with the
internationally mandated body, thus ensuring impunity for the vast majority
of those indicted who reside in Indonesia.
During the
Indonesian occupation, I was part of a group that founded
FOKUPERS, the Communication Forum for East Timorese Women, to document
abuses against women and to support survivors of sexual violence. We
continue this work today, addressing the full range of violence against
women, including domestic violence. But the need for legal justice for
Indonesia's crimes hangs constantly over the lives of women here. As one
widow asked me, "How can we heal if not through justice? We hear
our
children crying at night, remembering the violence, but there is no justice."
Women were
certainly not the only victims of Indonesia's state terrorism,
but the TNI specifically targeted them. At a recent hearing of East Timor's
truth and reconciliation commission, a former governor of East Timor
testified that the TNI raped the wives of pro-independence leaders as
part
of "a systematic and organized effort to crush [and] dominate"
the country.
East Timor
must help these women rebuild their lives. But this requires
that the international community meet its responsibility to ensure justice
for these crimes. East Timor is the world's newest country and one of
the
poorest. We cannot achieve justice on our own.
The TNI's
record of attacks on unarmed civilians stretches far longer than
those of the Islamic fundamentalists suspected in the recent Jakarta
bombings. The United States, which has long provided diplomatic, economic
and military support to Indonesia, must work with other Security Council
members to establish an international tribunal without delay. To do
otherwise sets a dangerous precedent and once again denies the humanity
of
the women and men of East Timor.
PNS contributor
Manuela Leong Pereira is executive director of Fokupers
(Women's Communication Forum Timor Lorosae), East Timor's main women's
organization.