AAP Newsfeed
March 11, 2002
Indon military says it legally assisted militia leaders
By Catharine Munro, South-East Asia Correspondent
JAKARTA,
Indonesia's military said it has provided legal assistance to militia
leaders accused of human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999 ahead of
the
start of human rights trials in Jakarta this week.
Officials today confirmed that the Indonesian military (TNI) would attend
the tribunal hearing the cases.
Concerns were recently raised that the tribunal would be boycotted when
the
TNI refused to give evidence at a human rights commission investigation
into the shooting of university students during the political turmoil
of
1998 and 1999 in Jakarta.
The investigation was ignored by the military because Parliament had
already concluded that the military could not be accused of human rights
violations in those cases, a departmental spokesman said.
But the East Timor trials would be fought out in court, according to
the
TNI's legal team.
"We are very serious," said Colonel Setiawan, who uses only one name.
"This not only involves institutional responsibility but also state
responsibility."
Only a finding of innocent for its members would be seen as fair, according
to the TNI's legal department head Major General Timor Manurung.
Manurung accused "enemies" of the military of bribing the civilian
militias
who ransacked East Timor in protest at the pro-independence vote into
providing false evidence.
The militia gang leaders were being persuaded to testify that the TNI
had
supplied them with weapons, he said.
"They even tried to bribe with large amounts of money - more than
IDR 10
billion ($A2,000,000)," Manurung told Tempo newspaper.
A department official later confirmed that the TNI was providing legal
support to the leaders of civilian militia groups who were among nearly
20
suspects named by prosecutors.
So far, militia leaders have not had formal charges laid against them
under
the Dutch-based system.
But three low-level military commanders have already been charged over
a
massacre in a half-built cathedral in Suai just after August 30, 1999.
Prosecutors allege that 27 East Timorese were massacred in the grounds
of
the Ave Maria Catholic cathedral. The case is due to begin on March 19.
The three, along with a former district police chief, are accused of
failing to control their troops in an attack on the compound of the cathedral.
The first case to be heard on Thursday involves former East Timor governor
Abilio Soares and former East Timor police chief Timbul Silaen, who will
face accusations of crimes against humanity involving widespread and
systematic attacks on civilian people.