Generals in court for actions in East Timor

["michael pugliese" <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Generals in court for actions in East Timor
Rights activists worry it's 'show trial'
Ian Timberlake, Chronicle Foreign Service
Thursday, March 14, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/14/MN220924.DTL

Jakarta -- A long-delayed human-rights trial to probe the 1999
violence in East Timor begins today amid concerns that high-ranking
Indonesian military officers will escape justice.

"The military is still powerful, so it's difficult for the government
to take them to court," said Hendardi, chairman of the Indonesian
Legal Aid and Human Rights Association. Like many Indonesians,
he has only one name.

Three generals are among the 18 suspects accused of crimes against
humanity following the vote by East Timor's residents in favor
of independence from Indonesian rule. The other defendants include
10 police and military commanders, two government officials and
three pro-Indonesia militia gang leaders.

More than two years ago, Indonesian forces ended a 24-year occupation
of East Timor with an orgy of arson, looting and murder that
killed an estimated 1,000 East Timorese and forced more than
200,000 into Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Tens of thousands
of refugees are still not allowed to return home.

East Timor is under U.N. administration until full independence
is declared May 20 after its people vote for a president.

The trials, which are likely to continue for months, will focus
attention on President Megawati Sukarnoputri's close relationship
with the military, which backed her rise to power last July.

INDONESIA-U.S. MILITARY TIES

The legal proceedings will also have long-term implications for
ties between the world's most populous Muslim nation and the
U.S. military, which were essentially suspended because of the
East Timor violence.

Under the Leahy Amendment, U.S. military sales and training assistance
to Indonesia are suspended until certain conditions are met,
including effective measures to bring to justice members of the
armed forces and militia groups suspected of rights abuses.

Many human-rights observers doubt that the panel of at least
three judges will find any of the generals guilty. Indonesian
courts are notoriously corrupt and susceptible to political pressure.

"They are holding (the trial) to meet demands made by the international
community. It's more like a show trial," said Hilmar Farid, 34,
a rights activist who has worked extensively in East Timor.

The first cases scheduled to be heard involve East Timor's former
police chief, Col. Timbul Silaen, and governor, Abilio Soares.
The highest-ranking suspects are Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, former
head of the regional military command, and Col. Tono Suratman,
who was the top soldier in East Timor. Suratman and Silaen were
promoted to brigadier general after the 1999 bloodletting.

A later report by the Indonesian National Commission on Human
Rights accused the military and police of setting up, arming
and coordinating the militias that terrorized East Timorese to
dissuade them from supporting independence.

The court will hear about an attack that killed more than 50
at a church in Liquica, an assault on the home of a pro-independence
leader that left at least 12 dead, and the massacre of some 200
refugees and three priests who sought shelter at a church in
Suai.

SEPARATE U.N. COURT

A U.N. court in East Timor is simultaneously hearing human-rights
cases and has sentenced 10 militia leaders to jail terms of up
to 33 years. U.N. prosecutors have also indicted two Indonesian
soldiers and nine militiamen for what was allegedly an attempt
to exterminate educated young men. The suspects are believed
to be in Indonesia, and Jakarta has made no effort to find them.

Albert Hasibuan, who headed the probe by the Indonesian rights
commission, says a "little bit of compromise is going on" between
Megawati, the military and the attorney general's office.

When Hasibuan's panel ruled in early 2000 that military officers
should be held responsible, then-President Abdurrahman Wahid
dismissed the armed forces commander, Gen. Wiranto. Wiranto is
noticeably absent from the list of the accused, which Hendardi
says is proof of a deal.

"The whole process is being managed in a way to keep these principal
figures of the TNI (armed forces) out of trouble," said a Western
diplomat.

Hendardi believes a recent decision to allow a separate military
command in Aceh province, where a military campaign to stamp
out armed separatists has left hundreds of people dead this year,
was a trade-off with the army to allow the trials to go forward.

Yet another Western diplomat has a more positive view, arguing
that the Megawati government is making a serious effort to achieve
justice and that although the military may not like the trials,
they accept the judicial process.

COURT'S SCOPE LIMITED

Even if all the suspects show up in court and their cases proceed,
the scope of the tribunal is limited by a decree that Megawati
signed shortly after she took office.

The agreement restricts the court's jurisdiction to abuses that
occurred in April 1999 and September 1999, and in only three
of East Timor's 13 districts -- Dili, Liquica and Suai.

Most of the more than 200,000 East Timorese killed by Indonesian
forces died in the first decade after the 1975 invasion of the
former Portuguese colony. More recently, many other 1999 atrocities
fall outside the court's limited mandate, including the ambush
of seven unarmed church workers and an Indonesian journalist
east of Baucau city and massacres of 65 people in the Oecussi
district.

Yesterday, a mob vandalized the offices of Kontras, Indonesia's
most prominent human- rights group, smashing windows and computers
and ripping up documents related to several cases the group is
probing.

Despite the intimidation and little faith in the judicial process,
activist Farid is hoping for the best. He said, "If these generals
are brought to justice, it means ending the chain of impunity."

©2002 San Francisco Chronicle  Page A - 8