Jakarta – A joint investigation team, comprising of officials from the Attorney General's Office and the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), will start on Thursday the questioning of 22 people as witnesses over human rights abuses in East Timor last year.
Prosecutor Umar Bawazier of the Attorney General's Office said on Wednesday that all of the witnesses had earlier been questioned by the Office's special team, including a list of 22 suspects who allegedly violated human rights after the UN-sponsored ballot on August 30 1999.
"The initiative for the questioning was taken by the UNTAET as the administration has its own perspective on the human rights abuse cases in East Timor. The investigation team established by the attorney general willserve as a facilitator," Umar told a media conference.
"The questioning will be held here and we have summoned five people for Thursday's questioning. Our [Attorney General's Office] team will merely convey the questions which will be provided by the other team [UNTAET]," he said.
Umar said only one Indonesian investigator and one UNTAET investigator – each accompanied by an interpreter – will carry out the questioning of each of the first five witnesses. "The UNTAET investigator will accompany our investigators and will make arecord of the questioning," he added.
The first five witnesses are former Liquia police chief Supt. Adios Salova, former military commander of East Timor capital of Dili First Lt. Frans Sermale, former East Timor police chief Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, former East Timor police mobile brigade chief Ass. Supt. Joko Purwanto and former Oecussi police chief Supt. Wilmar Marpaung. Adios Salova and Timbul Silaen are the suspects for 14 cases of human rights violation in five separate incidents in East Timor.
Other suspects were high-ranking military officers and prointegration militia members, including militia leader Eurico Guterres who is also going to face trial for allegedly instigating the attack of a police office in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, last September.
The Indonesian government and UNTAET had signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in legal and human rights-related matters which will allow both sides to obtain mutual assistance for the investigations. The cooperation will include assistance to present the witnesses for questioning and to carry out the arrests; the exchange of documents and related information; and efforts to facilitate the transfer of witnesses.
Earlier, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said UNTAET had asked for his office's assistance to summon nine witnesses in connection to a September 10 human rights abuse case which took place in the enclave of Oecussi, on the borderline of East Timor and the neighboring East Nusa Tenggara province.
"UNTAET has new findings in the Oecussi case, which have yet to be examined by the Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights [Komnas HAM]. So, the case will not be among the cases we are handling, which have been produced upon the rights commission's recommendation," he said.
Last year, 18 mass burial places were discovered in the enclave, possibly containing more than 50 people. There was also the remains of more bodies at the bottom of a lake in the area. Reports said the people were massacred on September 10 while leaving the camps of prointegration East Timorese who had lost the direct ballot to theproindependence group.