UN Daily Briefing 7 March:
PASSABE TRIAL POSTPONED AFTER REQUEST FROM DEFENCE
Efforts to bring a third major Crimes Against Humanity case to trial
have
slowed after the defence asked for more time to develop its case, the
East
Timor Serious Crimes Unit said today.
The indictment of the so-called "Passabe case", which involves
almost 70
killings, includes charges of extermination, murder, unlawful imprisonment,
deportation or forcible transfer of a population, persecution and other
inhuman acts related to a campaign of terror waged by pro-autonomy militia
and Indonesian soldiers from April to September 1999.
Among the charges detailed in the indictment is the 10 September 1999
massacre near Passabe village, in the Oecussi enclave, of 47 men from
the
nearby villages. About 100 people from Passabe village were later forced
to
bury the victims.
Only one of 11 of the accused - Sakunar (Scorpion) militia member Florenço
Tacaqui - has been arrested. Eight other militiamen and two Indonesian
Armed Forces (TNI) sergeants are still at large.
The trial was initially scheduled to begin today. The next significant
date
in the case is a pre-trial hearing on 11 April.