Timor rights tribunal should be ready in September: judge
JAKARTA, Aug 2 (AFP) - Indonesian judges should next month start trying
suspects over human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, a senior
judge
said Thursday.
Chief Justice Benyamin Mangkudilaga, who heads the preparation team for
the
rights tribunal, said judges should begin trying the first case in September.
"We have found 35 judges from across the country who are qualified
to be
human rights judges in Indonesia," Mangkudilaga told AFP.
The first trial would be held in Jakarta, he said.
Indonesian prosecutors have named 23 suspects -- one of whom was subsequently
killed -- as being behind the wave of military-backed militia violence
sparked by East Timor's vote for independence.
A UN report has said the violence killed at least 2,000 people and razed
towns and infrastructure, forcing some 250,000 people across the border
into
Indonesian-ruled West Timor.
The military and the militiamen led a campaign of murder, rape and
destruction across the territory in the months before and after the August
1999 independence ballot.
The dossiers on the 23 suspects -- former government officials, East
Timorese
militiamen and military personnel -- would be handed over to the human
rights
tribunal by the Attorney General's office, Mangkudilaga said.
"We just need to find the chief ad hoc judge," said Mangkudilaga,
who was
named to head the team after his predecessor, Syaifuddin Kartasasmita,
was
killed in a drive-by shooting last month.
Jakarta claimed possession of East Timor after its troops invaded the
former
Portuguese colony in 1975. The fledgling state is currently under UN
administration and preparing to become self-governing after elections
on
August 30.