United Nations – A recent amendment to the Indonesian Constitution might force the United Nations to hold an international inquiry into human rights abuses in East Timor, a spokesman said.
Until now the UN had believed Jakarta "would undertake a serious and credible investigation" of crimes committed before it handed the territory over to UN administration last year, Mr Fred Eckhard said on Wednesday.
But last Friday, the Indonesian national assembly amended the 1945 Constitution to prevent an individual from being prosecuted under laws that did not exist when a crime was committed.
The amendment created an uproar among local and international rights groups, which fear it will be used to prevent the prosecution of military officers for rights violations in East Timor, Aceh and elsewhere.
Lawyers defending Indonesian officers accused of rights violations in East Timor have said they will use the amendment to save them from prosecution.
"We'll have to see what happens with this idea for an amnesty," Mr Eckhard said. "But if it were to go forward, I think that would probably force us to reconsider our position concerning the need for an international investigation of these abuses."
Indonesian authorities had said they would carry out "an internal review of the excesses of the military and the militia in East Timor", Mr Eckhard said, adding that the initial feeling of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, was that "we should let Indonesia deal with it".
He said Mr Annan believed the Indonesian Attorney-General, Mr Marzuki Darusman, "who had been previously a human rights activist in the country, had good credibility in the human rights community, and that they would undertake a serious and credible investigation".
A preliminary Indonesian inquiry named the former armed forces chief, General Wiranto, as "morally responsible" for the bloodshed that left more than 600 dead after East Timor's vote for independence last year.
This month, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, said the UN would unilaterally call an international war crimes tribunal if Jakarta failed to bring the perpetrators of the Timor violence to trial. This week Mr Darusman was handed a final list of Timor suspects, drawn up by the 79-member investigation team.
The Constitution's amended article 28(I) states that the "right not to be prosecuted under laws which are applied retroactively" was one of several "human rights which cannot be diminished in any circumstance".
Mr Mohammed Assegaf, one of 15 lawyers defending officers linked to the violations in East Timor, said he foresaw a problem if the House of Representatives (DPR) passed a law to establish a human rights tribunal, because in international law such tribunals override questions of retroactivity.
The proposed law is still being discussed in the 500-seat DPR. But Mr Assegaf said he saw the Constitution as overruling any law passed in the DPR. "Absolutely, the Constitution is stronger. It is the foundation of our law," he said. "And the amendment means it is no longer possible to try someone retroactively."
Another member of the officers' defence team, Mr Yan Juanda, said if his clients were indicted under criminal law, retroactivity would not be an issue. "However if they are charged with crimes against humanity, with human rights crimes, we will be considering article 28(I)."