The Jakarta Post
Friday, January 11, 2002
E. Timor's patience wears thin over rights tribunal
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The East Timor transitional government is considering turning to an international tribunal due to the repeated delays in the trial of officers allegedly involved in the 1999 human rights abuses in the former territory.
Philipe Rodriguez of the East Timor Public Administration’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in Jakarta on Thursday that the East Timor people’s wish to see the perpetrators taken to the court of justice has not materialized.
Rodriguez said that East Timor has observed every development in the Indonesian government’s plan to bring the perpetrators to the ad hoc tribunal.
“We trust the Indonesian government to handle the case and see it as its domestic affair, believing that the trial would be fair.
“But we don’t see that Indonesia has truly the will to do it. If this situation persists, we want an international tribunal to take over the trial,” Rodriguez said in a seminar.
The government has established an ad hoc tribunal but the trial schedules have been repeatedly delayed because President Megawati Soekarnoputri has not yet approved the names of the judges which are already in her hand.
The names of the judges were proposed by the Supreme Court and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). In the latest promise, the trial would start on Jan. 15.
The seminar also featured Albert Hasibuan, former chairman of Komnas HAM team assigned to investigate the human rights violations following the 1999 referendum that led to East Timor’s independence.
Lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, who represents the Indonesian army generals allegedly involved in the rights abuses also spoke.
Rodriguez declined to say if East Timor had set any deadline before it turns to the UN to set up an international tribunal.
Albert said the commission concluded that more than 100 people from the military, police and civilians in fact deserved to be named as suspects.
Among the big names that the commission believes deserve to be declared suspects are (ret) Gen. Wiranto, former Udayana Military commander Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, and former Wiradharma Military Command chief Brig. Gen. Tono Suratman and Brig. Gen. A. Noer Muir, he said.
The commission cited the principle of chain of command when implicating Wiranto.
The Attorney General’s Office, however, cut the list of suspects to 23, arguing that “Wiranto was not directly involved in the riots”, Albert said.
The credibility of the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office was questioned after Wiranto was removed from the list of suspects. He was supposed to be the most important decision maker in the operation that led to the violation of human rights.
Albert Hasibuan said he believed that the delay was due to a political compromise between Megawati and “certain groups” in the military.
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Portuguese:
Programa
de Monitorização do Sistema Judicial (PMSJ)
Atualiza: 17 dezembro
O Programa de monitorização
do sistema judicial (PMSJ) foi logo estabelecido em 2001 em Díli,
Timor Leste. Através da monitorização do tribunal,
a provisão da analisa legal e dos relatórios temáticos
sobre o desenvolvimento do sistema judicial, o PMSJ visa contribuir a evaluação
em curso e edificação dum sistema de justiça em Timor
Leste.
Tel/fax. (670) 390 323 883 Mobile: (61)
419 804 600
1/la Rua do Moçambique, Farol,
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Email: info@jsmp.minihub.org
Para mais informações vide
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Bahasa Indonesia/Melayu:
Program
Pemantauan Sistim Peradilan
Diperbarui: Des 15
Program Pemantauan Sistim Peradilan (JSMP)
merupakan sebuah projek independen yang telah dikembangkan dibawah perlindugan
Asosiasi Juris Timor Loro Sa’e dan La’o
Hamutuk, sebuah organisasi yang terdiri dari orang-orang Timor
Loro Sa’e dan internasional. Melalui pemantauan kasus-kasus pengadilan
dan menghasilkan analisa hukun dan laporan-laporan tematis tentang perkebangan
sistim peradilan secara menyeluruh, JSMP bertujuan membantu Administrasi
Transisi, masyarakat umum Timor Loro Sa’e dan masyarakat internasional
dengan memberikan rekomendasi-rekomendasi bagi perbaikan yang terus-menerus
di mana masalah-masalah spesifik diidentifikasikan. Sasaran utama dari
program adalah memperbaiki mutu keadilan yang diberikan oleh sistim peradilan
yang baru didirikan, memajukan HAM dan pemerintahan yang berdasarkan hukum
dengan cara yang bermanfaat dan transparan bagi masyarakat Timor Loro Sa’e.
Sahe
Institute building, Rua da Mozambique I/1-A Palapaso, Dili – East Timor
(via Darwin, Australia)
Phone: (Mobile) 0419 804 600
Alamat pos: P.O. Box 340 Dili, East Timor
via Darwin, Australia
Christian Ranheim, christian@jsmp.minihub.org,
Télpon (Mobile): +61(0) 419 804 600;
Caitlin Reiger, caitlin@jsmp.minihub.org,
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English:
Judicial
System Monitoring Programme Updated Nov 15
JSMP is a new human rights project set
up by the East Timorese Jurists’ Association and the Timorese/international
organisation La'o Hamutuk. JSMP aims to assist the United Nations Transitional
Administration in East Timor, the East Timorese public and the international
community by making recommendations for ongoing reform of the fledgling
judicial system of East Timor.
The main objective of the programme
is to improve the quality of justice provided by the newly established
judicial system, and to promote human rights and the rule of law in a meaningful
and transparent manner for the people of East Timor through:
See also:
BD: East Timor's Judicial System - A collection of recent reports, articles and news