Indonesian generals on watch list

By Matthew Moore
Indonesia Correspondent
Jakarta
January 17, 2004

The US State Department is to put several serving and former Indonesian military officers, including a leading presidential candidate, on a watch list of indicted war criminals, effectively barring them from entering the US.

The list includes General Wiranto, former head of the armed forces and a leading presidential candidate in the elections this year, whom the Defence Department once considered a reform-minded professional.

General Wiranto and others on the list were among eight Indonesian army officers indicted last year on war crimes charges in Dili District court by East Timor's Prosecutor-General, using evidence gathered by the UN serious crimes unit.

A member of General Wiranto's presidential campaign team played down any damage the US move would cause to his presidential aims and said a ban on visiting the US would not apply if General Wiranto was elected president.

"People I have spoken to are convinced his name is not on the list," he said.

"And assuming he was on this list, and every indication is he's not, and he was elected president, a ban no longer applies because it becomes a diplomatic matter."

In recent months, General Wiranto has emerged as a front-runner to win the nomination of former president Soeharto's Golkar Party, which would allow him to challenge President Megawati Soekarnoputri in the July poll.

However, satisfactorily explaining his role in East Timor's bloodshed remains a significant obstacle.

The State Department move comes as the UN remains under pressure from human rights groups and some governments to take action against Indonesia for its perceived failure to seriously pursue those responsible for crimes in East Timor.

An Indonesian ad hoc tribunal set up under UN pressure prosecuted 18 officers and officials for war crimes but acquitted most of them and allowed those convicted to stay free on appeal.

Some senior officers, including General Wiranto, head of the armed forces at the time of East Timor's independence vote, were not investigated or prosecuted.

The refusal to prosecute has angered State Department officials, who believe the tribunal disregarded the evidence. The decision to deny those individuals visas to enter the US was an attempt to show the Administration's disapproval, an official said.

"Had there been a generalised perception that the prosecution was vigorous and a reasoned judgment was made," the visa process "would have been looked at in a different light," said a US Government official.

The names will be added to a State Department watch list.

The other names believed to be on the list are General Zacky Anwar Makarim, Major-General Kiki Syahnakri, General Adam Damiri, Colonel Tono Suratman and Colonel Mohammad Noer Muis.

- with Washington Post