Catharine Munro, Jakarta – East Timor's best-known militia leader Eurico Guterres today said he was ready to face court for human rights violations during the vote for independence in 1999. The Indonesian nationalist who was born in East Timor said he was ready to turn against the Indonesian government in the international courts.

"I will file a lawsuit against the government of Indonesia, the Portuguese government and the United Nations in the international courts because what is considered as the human rights violator is always the state and not the individual," Guterres said, according to the respected daily newspaper Kompas. "Those three parties were responsible for the political and security chaos in East Timor."

Guterres said he welcomed the setting up of the human rights tribunal, declaring he still was not aware of his crimes. "I was a civilian and not a state official so I cannot be accused of human rights violations. My political motive was only to defend the country. My hope is that I will be able to show in this court who was responsible for the human rights violations. I am curious to find out whether the human rights tribunal will be able to bring [then president] Habibie, [then military commander] Wiranto and other high-ranking civilian and military officials into the court."

A long-delayed tribunal that will deal with a limited number of cases in East Timor and the killing of Islamic protesters in Jakarta in 1984 was due to start mid-January. Officials from the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General's Office (AGO) said the tribunal now needed a decree from President Megawati Sukarnoputri confirming the appointment of the tribunal's non-career judges in order to get under way.

The AGO has included Guterres on a list of suspects for crimes in East Timor in 1999. However, Guterres has enjoyed the status of a nationalist hero in some quarters in Indonesia since the province broke away after the UN-backed independence vote. He was even given an official position in Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the biggest political party in the Indonesian parliament. This year, he served a short jail term for inciting violence in the West Timorese town of Atambua during a weapons handback ceremony between police and militia leaders last year.