Nine East Timorese fail to testify at Indonesian rights court
JAKARTA, Aug 27 Agence France Presse
Nine victims of violence in East Timor in 1999 have failed so far to
testify to Indonesia's human rights court because of apparent safety fears,
a prosecutor said Tuesday.
"East Timorese chief prosecutor Longhinus Monteiro said that some
did not
want to come out of security fears and that is nonsense since we have
had
several East Timorese witness here and nothing happened to them,"
prosecutor Rusmanadi told reporters.
The prosecutor said some were willing to give evidence but only around
the
end of September while others were only prepared to give video testimony.
"This brings me difficulties because all victims who could testify
are in
East Timor, " he said during the trial of former Dili military commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Sujarwo.
Sujarwo is one of 18 military and police officers, officials and civilians
who have faced charges of gross human rights violations by failing to
prevent or halt massacres by subordinates in April and September 1999.
In widely criticised verdicts the court has already acquitted six officers
including the former police chief and sentenced the former governor to
just
three years in jail. The others are still on trial.
Last Friday UN human rights chief Mary Robinson said in Dili she had
heard
reports of intimidation of East Timorese witnesses "who have taken
the
brave step of giving evidence" to the Jakarta court.
She said the UN would consider any intimidation "an extremely serious matter."
Two witnesses at Sujarwo's trial, including a police officer, said soldiers
and police were not on hand to tackle violence in Dili in 1999.
pro-independence supporters sheltering in Dili diocese and the bishop's
residence in September 1999 because he only arrived after the violence
subsided.
He confirmed making an earlier statement that police and troops were
never
on hand to halt violence.
But he said no one had expected that attacks would be launched against
widely revered religious institutions in staunchly Roman Catholic East
Timor.
Sitompul said that although he had arrived late in both attacks he had
helped keep people safe.
Another witness, a former pro-Indonesia teacher Marcelino Martins Ximenes,
said that in both incidents he also came late and did not see how the
attacks had started.
He also said that despite arriving late at the scene of both incidents,
he
did not see soldiers or police there.
Pro-Indonesian local militias, who were armed and organised by the
Indonesian military, launched a brutal campaign of intimidation before
the
August 1999 vote to break away from Indonesia and a revenge campaign
afterwards. An estimated 1,000 people were killed that year.
The trial resumes next Tuesday.