Vaudine England, Jakarta – International calls for the prosecution of Indonesians for war crimes in East Timor are sure to meet stiff opposition in Jakarta, and even some human rights monitors in the capital suggest now is not the time to pile on yet more pressure.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Australian Government all say evidence against perpetrators of the brutality in East Timor must be collected.
"The awful abuses committed in East Timor have shocked the world – and rightly so, since it would be hard to conceive of a more blatant assault on the rights of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians," Mrs Robinson told the UN Security Council last week. "There must be accountability for the grave violations committed in East Timor," she said.
East Timor's Bishop Carlos Belo also believes justice must be done, if future efforts at reconciliation are to succeed. "We must forgive, but we must also bring about justice," the co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize said. "There must be trials."
But Indonesians are struggling with the idea that their country can be accused of such crimes, let alone be held accountable to foreigners for them.
The immediate reaction is defensive, so the issue becomes not one of human rights, but yet another example of how foreigners are keen to dabble in the domestic affairs of a sovereign nation.
"My fear is that this nationalist backlash we are seeing now will only be intensified with such pressure on war crimes and prosecution," said a senior Western source in Jakarta.
The danger this and other sources see is that Indonesia could be forced into a shell of resentful xenophobia by such moves from the global community. That would jeopardise diplomatic and financial contacts, Indonesia's hoped-for democratisation and its economic recovery.
"It is not a black-and-white situation," said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, foreign policy adviser to President Bacharuddin Habibie. "The crimes against humanity are not one-sided. It would be better to ... put the past behind us."
Armed forces chief of territorial affairs Lieutenant-General Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday: "There is a conspiracy, an international movement ... to corner Indonesia by taking up the issue. We must position ourselves firmly that we have the facts, that it is not so easy to regard it as war crimes or crimes against humanity."
Among the arguments proffered for postponing or avoiding war-crimes prosecutions is the idea that the last thing a future East Timor needs is bad or confrontational relations with Jakarta. Indonesians say their own soldiers have been victims with many killed or maimed by East Timorese fighters.
A 42-strong team of UN human-rights experts is collecting evidence necessary to support possible future trials. It is focusing on ties between anti-independence militias and the Indonesian armed forces. Top of the list of suspects is Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim.
Other names mentioned include General Adam Daimari, whose regional command includes East Timor, Colonel Tono Suratman, formerly commander of the army in East Timor, and the militia leaders Joao Tavares, Cancio Carvalho and Eurico Guterres.