United Nations Indicts 17 in Indonesia
By JOANNA JOLLY
DILI, East Timor, Feb. 18 (AP) - International prosecutors on Monday
indicted 17 pro-Jakarta militiamen and Indonesian soldiers for crimes
against humanity allegedly committed during East Timor's violent break
with
Indonesia in 1999.
Among those charged was Eurico Gutteres, a notorious militia commander
who
now heads a youth wing of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's ruling party
in
Jakarta.
International arrest warrants will be issued for the suspects who are
all
believed to be in Indonesia, said Siri Frigaard, U.N. deputy prosecutor
general in East Timor.
Under an agreement signed in 2000, Indonesia committed itself to cooperate
with U.N. investigations in East Timor and to extradite suspects. But
recently, Megawati's administration has refused to abide by the accord.
So far, 99 people have been charged with crimes committed before, during
and after the U.N.-supervised independence referendum that ended
Indonesia's 24-year military occupation of East Timor.
At the time, Indonesian troops and their militia proxies launched a massive
campaign of violence in which hundreds of people were murdered and most
of
East Timor devastated. The bloodbath ended in September 1999 with the
arrival of international peacekeepers.
East Timor is currently under temporary U.N. administration. It is due
to
achieve independence in May.
Guterres, who led a militia gang based in the capital, Dili, was charged
with five counts of crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering his
men
to shoot pro-independence activists during a rally, and leading an attack
on a separatist leader's home in April 1999.
Guterres, who now heads the Indonesian Young Bulls - part of Megawati's
ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle - immediately denied he
had
anything to do with the raid, saying he was not in Dili at the time of
the
attack.
``I also reject the Interpol request for my extradition because I am
an
Indonesian citizen,'' he said. ``It is up to my government to decide
whether to hand over or not.''