Agence France-Presse March 1, 2002
Crucial Indonesian rights trials set for mid-March, judge says
The first trials of Indonesian army, police and civilian officials accused
of gross rights violations in East Timor in 1999 are expected to begin
on
March 14, a judge said.
Andi Samsan Nganro, one of the 12 career judges for the newly created
human
rights court, said Friday the trials could "still go ahead"
despite a
government request on Wednesday to the Supreme Court for a delay.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra asked for the
delay
pending the completion of regulations on witness protection and victim
compensation.
Draft regulations on both issues had been submitted to President Megawati
Sukarnoputri but had not yet been signed, Mahendra said.
"The projected date is March 14. Hopefully the government would
already
endorse those regulations by that time so that they are not seen as working
half-heartedly on this matter," Nganro told AFP.
Indonesia, under international pressure to bring offenders in East Timor
to
justice, agreed in 2000 to set up a special human rights court but only
did
so last month.
It has named 18 defendants, including three army generals, a police
general, several middle-ranking officers and others.
The tribunal will also hear cases related to the 1984 killing by troops
of
Muslim demonstrators in Jakarta's Tanjung Priok district.
One of Nganro's fellow judges, Binsar Tobing, said the judges could still
start trials even if the witness protection decree is not in place by
March 14.
"The trials can still go ahead because the law stipulates that we
can carry
them out while waiting for the regulations to materialize," Tobing
said.
But Nganro said witnesses "might be reluctant to appear in court"
if the
government fails to pass the decree in time.
Indonesian prosecutors on February 21 indicted seven of the 18 defendants
-- including the ex-governor and police chief of East Timor -- for crimes
against humanity before and after an independence ballot in East Timor
in
August 1999.
They could face between 10 years in jail and death if convicted.
Prosecutors have said files on the remaining suspects will be submitted
soon.
In the months surrounding East Timor's vote for independence from
Indonesia, 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 former Portuguese territory's infrastructure and forced
or
led more than a quarter of a million villagers into Indonesian-ruled West
Timor.
Two international rights groups, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, have questioned Indonesia's determination to bring offenders
to justice despite the indictments.
Amnesty International said "basic measures to ensure that the trials
in
Indonesia meet international standards of fairness are missing."