Special Panel Judges Travel To Oecussi To Hear Witnesses In The Trial Ofsakunar Militiaman Charged With The Passabe Massacre

Three Judges from the Special Panels for Serious Crimes travelled to Passabe village in Oecussi district for 3 days to hear 7 witnesses give testimony in the trial of Florenco Tacaqui. The former Sakunar militiaman is currently on trial accused of 8 counts of crimes against humanity including his alleged direct participation in the extermination of 47 men in what has become known as the Passabe massacre on 10 September 1999. In the first time that a Special Panel trial has been conducted outside Dili,
community leaders attended the public trial in Passabe and responded positively to seeing at first-hand one of the accused in the Passabe massacre facing justice.

As an initiative of the Special Panel, the three-judge panel, the SCU Prosecution team, the team of defence lawyers and the defendant moved the Special Panel proceedings to Passabe from 3 to 5 March 2004 to conduct the trial. At the beginning of the first trial day in Passabe, Judge Francesco Florit who is the Presiding Judge in the trial, explained that the reason it was decided to hear the testimony of village elders in Passabe was that "On listening to the people of old age, we trust that people of old age especially in this cultural context, are very much trustworthy. If they do not have direct knowledge of facts, they can give a picture of the personality of the accused, and the court can have an idea of what happened in 1999."

During the trial days, around 100 members of the community from Passabe came to watch the trial proceedings at a temporary courtroom set up in Passabe Police Station. The SCU Prosecutor in the trial, Mr. Charles Nsabimana commented: "The large number of people who came to the trial shows that communities in East Timor remain adamant that the perpetrators of the many crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999 must continue to be brought to justice at the Special Panels for Serious Crimes."

On the final day, the Judges, SCU Prosecution team and the Defence lawyers travelled to the remote Nifu Panef area near Noel Passabe to inspect the scene of the alleged crime. The SCU indictments relating to the Passabe massacre allege that 47 men were systematically shot or hacked to death with machetes by TNI and Sakunar miltia members at Nifu Panef on 10 September 1999. The indictments allege that TNI and Sakunar militia members including Florenco Tacaqui forced around 100 villagers from Passabe village
to bury the bodies of the victims in single and multiple graves at Nifu Panef on the East Timor side of the border with Indonesian West Timor.

Florenco Tacaqui remains on trial charged with 8 counts of crimes against humanity including murder and extermination for his alleged participation as a direct perpetrator in the murder of 18 men in three villages in Nitibe subdistrict on 8 September 1999 and 47 men in Nifu Panef in Passabe on 10 September 1999. The charges in the 8 counts of crimes against humanity include the imprisonment of 43 independence supporters from 18 to 24 April 1999 and inhumane acts against Jose Bubun on 9 August 1999.

Florenco Tacaqui is one of 11 accused persons charged in the SCU Passabe indictment issued on 27 September 2001. The Passabe indictment charges for crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, inhumane acts, persecution and deportation committed in Oecussi district. This includes the murder of 18 men in three villages in Nitibe subdistrict on 8 September
1999 and the Passabe massacre in Nifu Panef on 10 September 1999. The accused include the Indonesian military (TNI) commander in Passabe subdistrict Anton Sabraka and TNI Sergeant Andre Ulan, Passabe village chief Gabriel Kolo and Sakunar milita commanders Simao Lopes, Laurentino Soares alias Moko and Bonifacio Bobo alias Bone and Florenco Tacaqui. INTERPOL Arrest Warrants have been issued for the remaining 10 accused in the Passabe indictment who are believed to be at large in Indonesia.

The trial of two other former Sakunar militia members charged in a separate indictment with the Passabe massacre is scheduled to commence at the Special Panels for Serious Crimes on 25 March 2004. The former Passabe subdistrict Sakunar militia commander Januario da Costa and former Sakunar militia member Mateus Punef are charged, inter alia, with extermination as a crime against humanity in relation to the killing of 47 men in the Passabe massacre on 10 September 1999. Januario da Costa is also charged
with murder as a crime against humanity for the murder of 18 men in joint TNI and Sakunar militia attacks on three villages in Nitibe subdistrict on 8 September 1999.

To date, the Serious Crimes Unit has indicted a total of 369 persons with 281 of those accused presently outside the jurisdiction of Timor Leste including 37 Indonesian TNI Military Commanders and Officers, 4 Indonesian Chiefs of Police and 60 East Timorese TNI members.

The Special Panels for Serious Crimes in Timor Leste are each comprised of two International Judges and one East Timorese Judge. Since trials began at the Special Panels in 2001, a total of 49 defendants have been convicted with 1 defendant acquitted of all charges. At present, 12 trials with a total of 30 defendants are currently proceeding or are scheduled to commence at the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in the coming months.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SCU CONTACT scu@un.org