The Jakarta Post, 4/15/2003 12:52:49 PM
Amnesty slams Indonesia's "dishonest" Timor rights trials
JAKARTA (JP): Amnesty International on Tuesday slammed Indonesia's trials of
suspects in the 1999 East Timor violence as "not honest, truthful or fair" and urged
the United Nations to consider setting up a tribunal.
The human rights group, in a report as quoted by AFP, reminded the UN of its
responsibility to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against humanity before and after
East Timor's bloody breakaway from Indonesia are brought to justice.
"The trials conducted by Indonesia have not been truthful, honest or fair," the
London-based group said. "It is now time for the UN to find alternative ways to ensure
that justice is delivered in an effective and credible process".
Pro-Jakarta militiamen organised and directed by the Indonesian army waged a
campaign of intimidation before East Timorese voted in August 1999 for
independence, and a scorched-earth revenge campaign afterwards. At least 1,000
people are estimated to have died -- Amnesty says 1,300 -- and whole towns were
burnt to the ground.
Amnesty recalled that the UN Security Council and the UN Commission on Human
Rights had demanded that offenders be brought to justice. But the UN held off on an
international tribunal following Indonesian assurances that it would try offenders itself.
A special human rights court, in widely criticised verdicts, has acquitted 10 security
force members and a civilian. Five people have been ordered jailed but only one has
received the minimum 10-year sentence mandated by law. All are free pending
appeals. Two generals are still awaiting verdicts.
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