Agence France Presse
August 13, 2002
Gusmao wants Dutch journalist's murder trial held in East Timor
DILI, East Timor,
East Timor President Xanana Gusmao said Tuesday any trial for the murder
of
Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes should be held in his country.
"I would like the legal process to be held in East Timor so that
East
Timorese perpetrators could see for themselves that justice does exist,"
Gusmao said, referring to the possible role of East Timorese members of
the
Indonesian army in Thoenes' death.
Gusmao was speaking to reporters after talks with Peter Thoenes, the
brother of Financial Times correspondent Sander who was killed in the
Becora area of Dili on September 21, 1999.
Thoenes, Gusmao said, should stand as "an example for East Timorese
press
so that his bravery could be imitated by East Timorese journalists."
Dutch Ambassador Baron Schelter van Heemstra, who accompanied the elder
Thoenes, said his government would seek justice, "no matter how long
it takes."
Dutch police Superintendent Gerrit Thiry last month presented Indonesian
investigators with a videotape that appears to support witness statements
implicating Indonesian soldiers in Thoenes' murder.
"There is more than enough (evidence) to arrest at least several
TNI
(Indonesian armed forces) members as suspects in the hope that they will
be
questioned as suspects, not just as witnesses," Thiry said in July.
The spokesman for the Indonesian attorney general's office, Barman Zahir,
confirmed Tuesday that the case remained open.
He said prosecutors were still gathering witnesses but they must first
ask
permission from Jakarta's ad hoc human rights court to officially continue
with the probe.
Zahir said the Indonesian investigators remained uncertain about who
shot
Thoenes, and they were "very hesitant" with a key witness of
Thiry's.
Thoenes was riding pillion on a motorcycle at the time of his death.
Thiry said the motorcycle driver has told investigators that shots were
fired after he and Thoenes saw approaching troops from Indonesian Battalion
745. The rear tire of the bike went flat and Thoenes fell.
Other witnesses say soldiers were standing over Thoenes' body as a shot
was
heard and the motorcycle lying on the road was loaded onto an Indonesian
army truck, Thiry said.
On the videotape, Thiry said, a black motorcycle was seen being unloaded
from a truck at a Dili military base in the presence of soldiers and police
wearing bandanas.
Thiry said the tape showed the rear tyre of the motorcycle was flat.