The Guardian
August 5, 2003
East Timor tribunal to clear general
John Aglionby
The much
derided tribunal investigating the mass murder and devastation that
accompanied East Timor's 1999 independence referendum is expected to acquit
the most senior defendant on trial today.
Prosecutors
have recommended that the charges against Major General Adam
Damiri, who had territorial responsibility for the region during the carnage,
should be dropped.
The decision is bound to enrage human rights groups.
Only two
military officers, one police officer and two civilians, have been
convicted in connection with the months of violence in which the UN estimates
up to 1,400 people were killed, 250,000 people were forcibly relocated
to
Indonesian West Timor and almost half the territory was destroyed. All
five
are
free pending appeal.
Human rights
groups are likely to urge the international community and
particularly the United Nations - which allowed Jakarta to run its own
trials - to
determine whether an international tribunal is necessary.
East Timor's
government and most international diplomats, out of fear of
antagonising Indonesia, are hesitant about recommending further action.
The
tribunal has hardly won international support.
There have
been questions about the level of political will to see justice
delivered and the professionalism with which the trials have been prosecuted.
"It's been completely farcical," said Sidney Jones, the head
of the Indonesia
office of the Brussels-based political thinktank the International Crisis
Group.
Indonesians
cite technical difficulties as to why senior generals, such as
the then military commander General Wiranto, were not prosecuted.
But the
UN-established serious crimes unit in East Timor found what it deemed
sufficient evidence to indict Gen Wiranto and many other senior officers
passed over by Jakarta. Observers have highlighted judges who doze off,
incompetent prosecutors and intimidating tactics by the military - such
as
filling the
public gallery with soldiers with bayonets - as just a few of the tribunal's
myriad failings.
In April
the UN high commissioner for human rights only declared it was
"disappointed" and encouraged Jakarta to "take the necessary
steps to
improve the
current legal processes in a transparent way, to ensure justice will be
done".
The European
Union is to issue a declaration after the Damiri verdict that is
"quite strong", according to diplomats. Other states are expected
to follow
suit but as a Jakarta-based diplomat said: "Words are one thing,
action is
quite different."