[NYTr] Indonesia: E.Timor Abuse Convictions Overturned

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

sent by John Clancy

Sydney Morning Herald - August 7 2004


Convictions for E. Timor Rights Abuses Overturned

By Matthew Moore, Herald Correspondent, in Jakarta

Three Indonesian soldiers and a police officer have won their appeals
against convictions for gross human rights abuses in East Timor, in a
decision that means all Indonesian security force personnel have now
been cleared of the violence that resulted in the deaths of about
1600 people.

In the decision last month, made public yesterday, the notorious
former East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres also had his
10-year jail sentence halved because the judges said the sentence was
too severe.

The successful appeals by five of those originally convicted by an
Indonesian human rights tribunal means the country's courts have
upheld convictions of only two - both born in East Timor - of those
charged over the bloodshed surrounding East Timor's vote for
independence in 1999.

East Timor's former governor Abilio Soares recently became the only
person to be jailed in Indonesia for the crimes when he began serving
a three-year term.

This latest decision makes it more likely that Guterres, the other
person facing a sentence, could join Soares, although he remains free
while deciding on another appeal.

The overturned convictions were those against Major-General Adam
Damiri (three years), Lieutenant-Colonel Noer Muis, (five years)
Lieutenant-Colonel Sujarwo (five years) and the former Dili police
commander Hulman Goltom (three years).

It is unlikely that prosecutors will appeal against this decision,
particularly in the case of Damiri, the most senior officer tried.

The general was indicted in July 2002 for crimes against humanity
specifically in relation to massacres in Liquica (April 6, 1999), at
Isaac Leandro's and Manuel Carrascalao's homes (April 17, 1999), at
the Dili diocese office (September 5, 1999), at the resident of
Bishop Carlos Belo and the Suai church (September 6, 1999).

At the conclusion of the case against Damiri last year the prosecutor
urged the court to acquit him because of lack of evidence.

Critics have accused Indonesia of failing to find and punish those
responsible for the bloodshed and destruction before and after East
Timor's independence vote.

Tiago Sarmento, the deputy director of the Dili-based Judicial System
Monitoring Program, called the decision "just one more example of how
the Jakarta process has failed the Timorese people". He urged the
United Nations to create a commission of experts to "ensure this
mockery of international criminal law does not go unchecked".
Human rights bodies and several Western governments have already
labelled Indonesia's prosecutions as a sham.

Indonesia was forced to set up its ad hoc tribunal under
international pressure, but prosecutors only charged 18 people, and
from the outset their cases were criticised as extremely weak.
The latest decision was read in open court late last month but its
details only emerged yesterday after the senior judge told a
newspaper the original convictions had been overturned because there
was no proof.

A UN- backed team in East Timor has also conducted a series of
prosecutions. Several senior Indonesian officers have been indicted,
including the military commander at the time, the former general and
recent presidential candidate Wiranto.