UN rights chief offers technical aid for Jakarta's rights court
JAKARTA, Jan 21 (AFP) - The United Nations is prepared to provide technical
help to Indonesia's newly established human rights court, the visiting
chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission, Leandro Despouy, said Monday.
"The international community is prepared to provide technical assistance,
if
necessary," Despouy told journalists after meeting President Megawati
Sukarnoputri at the palace.
He said the international community was closely watching for developments
after Megawati last week named judges to try those accused of gross human
rights violations before and after the UN-organised independence ballot
in
East Timor in August 1999.
Megawati last week named 18 non-career judges to work alongside 12 career
judges on the special court to try senior Indonesian military officers
and
others.
The trials could start early next month, officials have said.
"(Despouy) came here to get first-hand information on the trials
of cases of
human rights violations in the run-up and after the ballot for
self-determination in East Timor," said Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda,
who
accompanied Despouy to the meeting.
He said Despouy "understood what has been done by the government
of
Indonesia" and also accepted that the cases should be settled by
Indonesian
courts and not by an international tribunal.
Wirayuda said Megawati assured Despouy that the human rights court would
be
conducted "justly".
Three army generals, a police general and several middle-ranking officers
are
among the 18 suspects who are facing trial for alleged gross rights
violations in East Timor in 1999.
In the months surrounding East Timor's vote, pro-Jakarta militias backed
by
the Indonesian military went on a bloody rampage.
They killed hundreds of people, burned towns to the ground, destroyed
80
percent of the half-island's infrastructure and forced or led more than
a
quarter of a million villagers into Indonesian-ruled West Timor.
Among the suspects are: Major-General Adam Damiri, who headed the Bali-based
Udayana military command overseeing East Timor in 1999; Brigadier-General
Suhartono Suratman and Brigadier-General M. Nur Muis, former commanders
of
the Dili military; Colonel Yayat Sudradjat, the former head of the
much-feared Tribuana Task Force; and former East Timor police chief Brig-Gen
Timbul Silaen.
Dossiers on the 18 suspects detail crimes in April and September 1999.
They include the massacre of refugees who had taken shelter in churches
in
the towns of Liquica and Suai and in the Dili residences of Bishop Carlos
Ximenes Belo and pro-independence figure Manuel Carascalao.
The human rights court will also try alleged offenders in the Tanjung
Priok
case, in which the military shot dead at least nine demonstrators in 1984.