Habibie Disowns 1999 Killings, Blames "Criminals"
UNWire
March 20, 2003
Former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie told a human rights court in
Jakarta today that criminals -- not his administration -- were responsible
for the revenge campaign that resulted in the deaths of nearly 2,000 people
following the East Timor independence referendum in 1999 (Associated
Press/Yahoo! News, March 20).
Habibie's testimony damaged the case of former East Timor military chief
Brigadier General Tono Suratman, who is on trial for failing to prevent
two
massacres in April, 1999, in which 32 people were killed (Ahmad Pathoni,
Agence France-Presse, March 20). Suratman's defense had argued that he
was
simply carrying out orders from the Habibie administration.
Habibie refuted this claim, saying there would have been a written or
unwritten order to carry out the killings. "But in fact, the opposite
occurred. We prepared systematic measures to prevent (violence),"
Habibie
said (AP/Yahoo! News).
The former president said his administration approved of the referendum
vote because "we respect the universal values of human rights"
and that his
government did not impose heavy security before the vote because it did
not
want to be seen as trying to intimidate voters.
"There had never been a conspiracy to make the pro-integration (with
Indonesia) camp win the referendum," he said. "I wanted to make
sure that
the vote was carried out as honestly as possible," he added (AFP).
"What
happened there was the result of criminal actions and whomever committed
them should be put on trial," he said.
Habibie also blamed the United Nations for rushing the release of the
results. "I said it was too early ... we did not have time to make
preparations," he said (AP/Yahoo! News). Habibie said the United
Nations
gave him only one hour's notice before it announced the results on Sept.
4,
1999, three days earlier than planned, giving the military little time
to
deploy troops (AFP).
The East Timor trials in Jakarta have been criticized as a sham for having
thus far acquitted 11 of 18 officials charged with crimes against
humanity. Of the five defendants convicted, all remain free pending
appeals. Human rights activists believe the trials were convened in order
to abort an international drive for a U.N. war crimes trial akin to those
for Yugoslavia and Rwanda (AP/Yahoo! News).